The kids catch the tail-end of the holiday films
While parents tidy away the odds and ends,
choose their best jeans and fix their hair.
The new toys are now up in the bedrooms.
A pink glow from the tree shines on for the new year.
Adults fill the house, the rooms, the kitchen, the stairs,
along with alcohol vapor and blue filaments of cigarette smoke.
Children gingerly make their way among them, observing.
The night wears on to a count down
when everyone forms a circle, singing about forgetting
The children can barely reach.
Parents help the children socialize and say goodnight.
Despite the pounding heartbeat of the music through the floor
they doze their way to New Year’s Day.