Christmas Without You

Christmas without you,

I wonder where you are now.

Do you still hang the star we chose together,

or does a stranger light your bough?

*

Does your Christmas tree still twinkle

with that same soft golden glow?

Does it sparkle with the laughter

of the moments we used to know?

I reach for memories like fragile ornaments,

but they slip and shatter in my hands.

The silence hums where carols lingered,

in this winter I can’t withstand.

Yet, I light a candle in the window,

a flicker of hope in the night.

Perhaps it will guide you back to me,

a beacon in the cold starlight.

The above poem and song are dedicated to all my family and a close friend whom I lost this year.