constructing poetry

Christmas Morning

It is next week, and I wake before my alarm at what my phone tells me is way too early in the morning. But I can’t go back to bed because it is Christmas and my back aches with helping Santa until roughly four hours ago. In our house, Santa leaves the ribbons to be tied and curled under the tree so they don’t get crushed in his bag. The last part of Christmas Eve is sitting with my sisters under the tree, curling and tying as fast as we can go, and then arranging the gifts so that wrapping paper is evenly distributed.

We don’t have children with us this morning. Just four adults sleeping (or waking) in three rooms, waiting until it’s time to come downstairs and have breakfast. When we were children, impatience dictated Christmas morning, but there were rules. Only the youngest could wake up the house, and that child had to wake naturally. Which meant, as the oldest, I spent hours at a time, sitting on the floor of my sister’s room, trying to stare her awake. It almost never worked.

I check my phone again, but it still isn’t nearly time for a civilized breakfast. But lying in bed isn’t helping. I stand, gather clothes together—including Christmas socks and a shirt that’s both comfortable and photogenic—and head for the shower. Ten minutes later, the phone still hasn’t marked dawn. I head downstairs with my knitting to take my insulin and wait some more. We have only minimally decorated this year. No children to be disappointed. With a Christmas movie playing softly, I knit and wait for my phone to acknowledge it’s time for people to be awake.

I think of my brother and sisters. In Germany, the morning must be nearly over with gifts unwrapped and breakfast finished. In California, the children are probably waking their bleary eyed parents. In Alabama, with their daddy in the kitchen making cinnamon rolls, the children might be in the middle of the morning’s unveiling. Upstairs, my baby sister is still sleeping or maybe not asleep yet. And my parents won’t wake until they’re good and ready.

I sit and knit, trying to finish my advent scarf that I’ve worked on since the day after Thanksgiving. It’s nearly finished, a complicated creation of lace and twisted stitches and cables that evoke angels and bells and holly and other Christmas symbols. I knit while on the television, actors sing and pretend to fall in love and my phone blinks closer and closer to the time when they will stir upstairs and come down and meet me around the tree for our own unwrapping of presents.

word count: 448

timepiece: phone

outside, an imagined rooftop clatter
a jingle of bells
wakes me, with no hope
of return—Christmas morning
begins as midnight rolls
away and parents finish
their wrapping and ribbons
a few hours before
children scream “Santa came!”

no children here, but my
mind runs with memories
of Christmas past—
waiting for blue eyes to open
so mayhem can commence, and
although my phone tells me
that dawn has hours to come,
I can’t sleep.

all over the world, my
family is waking, children
entering the same
cycle of enthusiasm while
parents yawn—I can almost
see them, as I scroll
their pictures on my phone—
Germany. Alabama. California.
the dancers are different,
the dance is the same.

and me. waiting for adults
to wake, working one
last project as Christmas
links us. so close.
so far away.

line count: 32

timepiece: phone

Prompt ▼

December 16, 2018 (Ren)
Subject or Theme: Christmas Future ~ a narrative and a poem!
Word(s) to Include: Any type of timepiece: clock, timer, phone, watch, etc. Please note what you use at the bottom. Must be used in the both narrative and poem.(or any derivatives of these words)
Forbidden Word(s): Future (or any derivatives of these words)
Additional Parameters: Write a narrative about a future Christmas. It must be at least 250 words (give word count). Then using that narrative, write a poem. At least 28 lines. Do not use exact lines from the narrative. Make the poem poetic.
Remember, do not use forbidden words ANYWHERE, including title or the brief description.