It will soon be over
Blessed this year, without a jacket
An hour of sunshine gilding
The leaves that autumn left behind,
Silence broken now and then
Soft breaths of breeze
In bright-lit houses families feast
There is laughter and babble
Turmoil and tension duly swell,
Break, or averted, swell again
Back and forth, back and forth
The great and much-feared Christmas tide
As turkey curls and crusts and dries
And milk hoarded too soon will
Sour in fridges that it may
Make slimy nodules
On Boxing Day.