NAME THE PLACE
. . if you can, where a woman in black velvet
wears a hat constructed from balloons.
Before a roaring fire,
people are singing Nowell.
Banjo and fiddle, washtub bass and guitar
echo through the hall.
Now everyone is singing
“Feeling Groovy.”
An aproned man carves turkey.
A woman offers a bowl of potatoes.
Boys and girls run to and fro
bearing pitchers, and plates of cake.
A magician pulls
a rainbow from his mouth
while children shout
words to make it real.
Everyone is there:
a man who recently bought oxen,
the one who took a wife,
a woman from the highway,
a beggar from the hedge.
a man most inappropriately dressed,
Santa Claus, and look!
there’s that maiden, all in blue.
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