For the tenth year in a row
Bea has brought a scented candle
Tilda has brought a bottle of
dime store cologne, yellow,
in frosted glass carved
to the likeness of Lady Liberty.
Esther has brought a fruit cake, brandied,
in a red tin with a hand painting of nativity
at Ground Zero.
Mabel has brought a doily
embroidered from red, white and blue
threads she purchased at J.C.Penny.
Addie, weary of the crowds at K-Mart
stuffed a Hamilton in a card
left over from last year's box.
Flora is excited about the papier-mâché
creche she has molded from the front section
of the Times: Idi Amin, baby Jesus, drug wars,
shepherds, scud missiles, Mary, Joseph all
crammed, crumpled, soaked, and dolloped
with arthritic hands, an elbow to steady the craft guide,
paste dripping on the carpet,
and all the while wanting to lick her fingers.
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