Christmas Eves were spent at my grandmother’s little house
\non Lawndale, and then, later, an A-frame on 16th.
\nThe dining table was set with festive tablecloth, and
\neven though she still had her old electric keyboard,
\nshe never turned it on to play.<\/p>\n
Anyway, the grown-ups – my parents, aunts and uncles –
\nnever stopped talking long enough for there to be a lull
\nin the laughing and joking.
\nFlossie, my mom’s sister, gone longer than it seems possible,
\nwas the cut-up.
\nThe only thing she retained
\nafter the undiagnosed Alzheimer’s that later carved her memories
\nwas her smile and a startled laugh like
\nshe was just realizing the joke.<\/p>\n
With each year, fewer of the family came and
\nwhen they did, they arrived later and left earlier.<\/p>\n
Because we wouldn’t see the extended families
\non Christmas morning, we all opened each other’s gifts
\nthat night. I want to say it was Flossie who gave me a tribute album
\nartists performing songs of Yoko One
\nand John Lennon songs. It was the year Lennon was shot, and I do remember
\nopening it that night, and my cousin
\nbeing impressed
\nthat Roseanne Cash, who sang
\n“Walking on Thin Ice,”
\nwas on the record.<\/p>\n
My heart aches still at the thought that my aunt
\nknew what Lennon meant to me,
\nand that she knew I would love that album.<\/p>\n
The next morning, Christmas Eves were spent at my grandmother’s little house on Lawndale, and then, later, an A-frame on 16th. The dining table was set with festive tablecloth, and even though she still had her old electric keyboard, she never turned it on to play. Anyway, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-prompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73784"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74064,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73784\/revisions\/74064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI opened Spaniard in the Works<\/em> and In His Own Write.<\/em>
\nMy mom has always given me the best books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"