Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Best Christmas Ever (in response to a writing prompt)



Best Christmas Ever 
                        Like asking which of your children you love the most


There was the first Christmas
when I was the prince
unknowing head of the grand-kids brigade

There was Christmas in Maine
warm house         a turkey
a small model train

There was grandparents Christmas
loving old man         silvery woman
polished wood floors        light in the windows

There was growing boys Christmas
with pairs of real skis
endless days in the snow for my brother and I

There were years of dark Christmas
not too many I guess
sitting in quiet and counting the losses


There were Christmases      children
my wife’s loving tree
home-made decorations placed to cement

our hearts to our family
to ancient ancestors 
to dim winter evenings

to bonding of campfires
after a low-passing
sun has gone down

now Christmas is lights
strung up on the houses
ornaments carefully tended and hung

and after all of the parties have passed
along with the crowded living room mornings
Christmas comes as it will            year after year

and rests on our shoulders     a dusting of snow


© Frank Kearns 2016 

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Christmas: Orono 1956

Sometimes poems keep changing and changing. Here is an update to a poem a started a long time ago ...




Christmas: Orono 1956

We would sit on the bank and feel the tremble
of the southbound passenger train
as it rolled across the Pine Street grade

trailing a lone red signal light
that beckoned us south to Bangor Maine
down to New York and way out West

but for now we were grade school boys
Christmas pajamas and a model train
stopped on a flimsy oval of rails

all waiting on the vagaries
of electric circuits in a little house
taxed to the limit by the chill

of winter air against the cracks
fuses blowing at the demands
of Christmas lights and electric oven
glowing just above the tracks



© 2015 Frank Kearns

Friday, December 5, 2014

Christmas: Orono Maine 1956




The trains would roll
The streamlined F3 locomotive
would pull the Bangor and Aroostook passenger train
across Pine Street and over the Penobscot River bridge

head out of the small Maine town
and like a magnet pull us along
west across the Mississippi to
New Mexico and California   

But for now
the model train laid out in an oval
of flimsy track on linoleum floor

would have to wait the vagaries
of electric circuits in a little house
taxed to the limit by the chill

of winter air against the cracks
and fuses blowing at the demands
of Christmas lights and electric oven
glowing just above the tracks





© 2014 Frank Kearns

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Off The Grid


I really like Carol's short story "Off The Grid." We are excited to say that it was recently published in the latest edition of The California Writers Club Literary Review.


Off the Grid

by Carol Kearns

Teddy nodded his thanks without missing a note as the young woman dropped some change into the open saxophone case. As he anticipated, foot traffic was heavier than usual in front of the Dollar Store this Friday, and people were feeling excited and generous about the beginning of the holiday season. It was the day after Thanksgiving, with many people already in the mood for Christmas.

Today Teddy’s playlist of recognizable pop/rock and occasional jazz tunes was salted with songs of the season. “Feliz Navidad” was a big favorite in this neighborhood, and most of the families recognized “Rudolf” and “Frosty the Snowman.” This mini-mall was not the most profitable location on Teddy’s circuit, but the high volume of steady customers gave it a measure of reliability. The Dollar Store was a modern-day Five-and-Dime, with only the name changed to reflect the inflation of the past sixty years. The store offered simple things that people would always need – household items, certain packaged food, hair care products, stationery, costume jewelry. People came to shop, buy lottery tickets at the liquor store, and dine on Chinese take-out. Teddy lived within walking distance himself, and he worked this strip at least several times a month. With clouds looming from an offshore storm, Teddy felt he had been prudent in postponing the long bus ride to Best Buy until tomorrow.