Haunted in the half sunken darkness
Some Christmases you don’t know
What to say to each other
Apart from simply walking to your family.

Smiling at couples walking around
Frozen ponds with their dogs
And children making snowmen
Out of the white mysteries on the floor

Moments tied up in images
Outside other people’s houses
With lights on their windows
Like lifted eyes facing the light

Crossing squares in squinted emotion
In full accord with the earth
Snorting at flurries as they come down
With a flick on each other’s noses

And a smile that says more than words
All the way to when your sister
Opens her front door
With a glass of wine in her hand.