Here for Us by suze Allen

Christmas 2025 Westport Connecticut

Liminal weather

this week

snow 

rain, sleet 

snow again

quickly melting 

into clement 

bare 

soft ground

a traveling mercy 

for getting us

safely

where we need 

to be, our

assemblage of family

in union and unison

chosen

birthed

each praying 

the same 

merciful ease 

be shown to us

in the often 

strain of gatherings

expectations, those

holiday hurdles

and no one 

can jump that high

anymore 

if ever

this year we

have toiled to make 

our usual

fervent bustle 

slowed

savored

more even keeled

in kilter

in New England

home of 

our origin

flickering holiday 

travel scenes 

the mama 

her little dog

crated, grateful to be 

going wherever 

her human goes

little, smooth 

fox terrier 

now one of the

bags slogged

from station to station

lulled by 

the melodiousness 

of trains

wood and water ways

whizzing 

in and out of view

here and gone

a lesson of presence

being in

the going 

the arriving

in Westport

to expectant love 

a warm hearth

opens

into a friend’s hug

his generosity

of spirit

of, well, everything

ready for, well, anything

and how lucky

is everyone

who comes here

the Fusion 

of family

grown children cargo

father, German Shepard, too

precious, all in one 

taking turnpikes

and parkways

to 11 Rockyfield Road

to partake in our

festive ancestral 

traditions

now nestled in Connecticut

their arrival

met with merriment

all 

embracing the how

now of blessings

six lives 

being lived

harmoniously 

with heart

not taken 

for granted

because beloveds 

friends suffer 

silent storms

raging loneliness

inclement stretches

of days, years 

sometimes 

the shadows of which

have been our own

and will be again

for that is set up

here, this earth plane 

seldom euphonious

or like the weather

can’t make up its mind

or maybe all are 

short lived decisions

meant to admired 

in their spontaneity

nature’s brevity

calling senses to wake

expectations to cede

to the moment

for the exact duration

of mist or light

catch what is now

release

and fill with wonder 

at the next display

today is not for 

forgotten gifts

lost in wrappings

ripped and tossed

off to the corner of the room

but for the unopened treasures 

sitting right before us

seeking to be held

unwrapped jewels

polished, reflections

of each otherness

consanguine humanness 

we are all family

chosen, biological

we are all nature

we are all gifts

to give, to cherish

behold

this is Christmas

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