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--chosen-work--
The Festive Season
In the vase and centre-pieces
holly leaves are turning brown
folding still sharp-spiked and prickly
tired red candles guttered down
There will still be decoration
fairy glitter in the grass
bright red streamers, yellow plastic
aluminium cans and glass
For a more enduring memory
fixed on wall and tree and post
floral bouquets wrapped in plastic
see the tokens of the lost
By each moment there remembered
friends and kin hold back their tears
with colours that defy the winter
childhood toys and teddy bears
Sadder relics lonely flowers
browned by days of rain long past
for those who through the greyest winter
few remember or outlast