Elan Mudrow
Smidgens
Christmas Presence
Late, Christmas night, wandering past your home.
I see your face in the window, warm, buried in your phone, your lamps glow
There’s a fuzziness about your image
The trees, their winter arms angling for musty sky, starless.
The atmosphere’s full of their limbs, in your yard and everyone else’s,
black against the city’s sky, a silent collage
My hands wear soft gloves, wool, cotton, and oil, stretch to fit
move in the new climate’s coolness, a different kind of clear.
I’ve forgotten how many times I’ve touched bark, I take off one glove to text someone.
My boots can’t walk quietly through all these streets, so much pavement
as if we’re knocking down mountains exchanging them for vast networks of streets.
Your home, just one of many quiet ones, mostly dark.
Car tires sound like sticky tape peeled off a rough surface,
slide like sludge past your home, carrying kids with new Christmas presents.
I see their faces through the window, warm, aglow, buried into phones.
I wave to you as I walk by. You politely wave back.
We resume texting.
16 Comments on “Christmas Presence”
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Elan Mudrow 
The photo is perfect for the poem. And what an end to the poem. You wave to each other and then continuing texting each other…. brilliant statement on modern communication. -Jill
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Great descriptions.
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Thanks Betty!
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I love this one, Elan – one of my new favorites.
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I read, Christmas blues, here. Feeling alone, perhaps if you believe in the holiday left out, and connecting with others only through a screen on your phone. To me, an excellent description of that malaise.
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I love your images, a marriage of the mundane and the almost mystical.
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Good poem, good to see how you incorporate references to the digital age (like texting) in a poem full of imagery.
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I enjoyed the nature of the poem. The overtone and hidden mention of how “progress” overtakes humanity. Excellent!
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You’re very welcome.
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Ahhh, Dawn. Thanks so much.
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Elan, you inspired me today, so I’ve mentioned you in my post!
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I love the descriptions here.
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Yes, it is a curiosity. Thanks
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Gorgeous! The best I’ve read over the Christmas break.
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The all in italics got me curious but overall… lovely
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Very gentle narrative. Love this. Chris T.
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