January the Tenth, by Alan Walowitz

January the Tenth, by Tim Savage (USA). Contemporary.

January the Tenth
 
In a far corner of the room, the Christmas decals,
peeling from the edges, but still enough intact
to reflect off the rain on the window,
retain some of the light of the season,
but only when the traffic signal so many floors below
changes from red to green and back again
in its predictable rhythm.
 
The gateleg table--so practical
the way it could hug a corner
and still seat sometimes five or six for holidays,
but not if they were too full-grown--
now’s on its way to being antique,
though purchased new from a small shop in Buffalo,
soon after the war, when all seemed possible.
But the cards we place upon it
don’t always want to remain upright,
though if they fall, we fix in passing,
without thinking much, even at this late date
when they could just as soon be gathered up and tossed.
 
We’ve mostly forgotten who sent them,
as friends we’ve known grow farther away,
and many more each year exit our life
and, we only hope--how silence follows silence--not their own.
Though even this perpetual not knowing
can be comfort as time hurries by
and another Christmas, with any joy we’ve remembered to share,
dwindles in January’s own sharp cold
and unkind light. 

Alan Walowitz
​
Alan Walowitz’s poems can be found on the web and off. He’s a Contributing Editor at Verse-Virtual, an Online Community Journal of Poetry, and teaches at Manhattanville College and St. John’s University.  His chapbook, Exactly Like Love, was published by Osedax Press in 2016 and is now in its second printing.  Go to alanwalowitz.com for more poems and more information.

​Tim Savage (artist), a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru, is a graphic designer, fine artist, and teacher of art, calligraphy, and web design.  He’s won numerous awards in watercolor, oils and pastel painting and is a published illustrator. Tim’s  a member of the Art League of Nassau County, the National Art League, and is an active volunteer in the Inkwell Foundation, an organization that brings cartoonists and illustrators together with children in need.  He can be found on the web at http://timsavageteacher.com/