Ode to your Christmas decorations on the mantel

Idealized image of home,
simple pattern from a simple time,
school, drugstore, house, hotel,
buildings that softly shine.
It’s a world of imagination
from the heart of the little girl,
who lives within the woman
that arranged this loving world.

I sit back in my chair,
and you sit back in yours,
admiring the invented village,
its bright windows and bright doors.

(The flicker of electric candles
moves the skaters on the pond,
and the cotton among the trees
makes us glad we’re safe and warm).

It’s a setting of wished-for scenes,
built on love and being kind,
where people help each other,
and are glad to share their time.

You’ve spent your year in meetings,
in classrooms and county halls,
fighting to help the schools
break down dividing walls,
but tonight you’ll go with me,
on a journey through your town,
hand in hand through imagination,
beneath its starry crown.

I sit back in my chair,
and you sit back in yours,
admiring the invented village,
its bright windows and bright doors.

And tomorrow we’ll sit down
with the Grinch and Charlie Brown!