well, my lovely little creatures, in a few scant hours
i will be hurtling in a rental car down I-10
towards texas, family, and bittersweet memories aplenty..
my ancestral birth-place, that sweet old town..
shaky nerves and muddled mind, adrenaline hum, and no sleep
and mad, pointless present wrapping and packing
i am putting off now until the last few precious minutes..
none of it seems real, this strange season..
as i sit in a silk slip and slap at mosquitoes-
i have to remind myself that it is december..
well, here’s to winter in the dirty south, and global warming..
for these last moments i am alone in my house,
soon to be swarmed in the swoon of familiarity
the beacons of my past-life,
and the blank oblivion that is my future..
tabula rasa, clean slate..
if those elves don’t come through this year,
i’ll skin each and every one of them alive
with my three-pronged knife..