O' Christmas Tree

Brothers

we cut the tree from the field adjacent the house

with a long armed saw and our two boys

one lay in the grass and we said he is baby Jesus

the other walked off with his father

they both fear the woods,

at night I tell the bedtime story

two boys lived in a house in the woods

no, they cry, out of the woods not in

on the edge, I ask,

okay

everyone wore red but me

and there was no snow

I have been thinking about last times

endings 

there will be a last time 

for all things here

some of mine:

a last baby birthed

a last drink

but who can say? neither are well remembered 

in the log cabin we situate the tree

with tradition

in the same corner it has 

stood since 1978 

play Christmas songs

make dinner -- the children refuse

the next day alone

I brim with fear

looking at the tree 

and the news

it's a white pine that might have grown 

up to one day crack the sky