The Dead Return at Christmas

Black shirt with avian pattern:

I wore you to Grandma’s funeral,

And I wear you this Christmas morn.

At dinner, as pale snowflakes fell outside,

All we could talk about was funerals

And I was reminded that the dead are always with us.

Black shirt: You are patterned with souls!

Flutter you creatures on thrush’s wings

About our quiet feast,

Haunt you our table in the sorrow

That lights upon lonely faces. The dead return

At Christmas, and they live in empty chairs.

Manifest you dead ones as truants,

And damned are we to ever feel the dearth!