Waiting for Christmas

From Ancient Paths

by Jane Hertenstein

At Christmas every light comes on,

in the basement where my daughter

home from college retrieves ice cream,

in the dining room a lamp illuminates

the abandoned puzzle, the laundry nook

dazzles, while the back porch radiates a

smoky incandescence, the TV flickers

a blue twilight, in the middle of the night

my heart pulses as I reflect. Soon

the house will be silent, the only light

the bulb above my reading chair.

Memoirous