Cynical Christmas

Nothing is more choking than Christmas tradition. The wreath of it begins to tighten on the neck of the season as we circle the coming table with Ws hoping what we did will continue even though Time creates gaps that are big enough to waltz through. The who, what, where and why become the menu. At table, we ignore the intervening deaths, divorces. divisions as we struggle to carry on. We permit the ghosts to sit between us, the gritty living and alive-still and pretend the Unwelcome isn't there. But throughout, The Gathered smile when their eyes glaze momentarily, their tongues freeze in their mouths to remind us with those small silences during the feast and fetish that we are  feigning the day as required and will allow the red and green and sparkling to win over yet another endured Christmas dinner.