Hello, December

Hello, December, how’ve you been?

It’s been a while since we caught up;

we should spend some time together.

Let’s stand outside wrapped in scarves and mittens

catching snowflakes on our tongues

while accidentally catching a cold, too.

Let’s try to build a gingerbread house,

the roof sliding off and the walls falling in,

and get more icing on our fingers than the corners.

Let’s take a stroll through the snow

until our teeth chatter and our fingers shake

while we carve our names into a naked tree.

Let’s pretend we know how to ice skate

and fall down again and again,

soaking our jeans and bruising our knees.

Let’s window shop under twinkling city lights 

and pretend we don’t mind the noise or the crowd,

and that we don’t have spare change to donate.

Let’s eat holiday dinner with the family,

a large ham and some pumpkin pie

that we’ll regret on the scales later.

Let’s drive to the mall for the holiday sales,

first wasting time trying to park

and then wasting money on “affordable” material goods.

Let’s stay up late and count down the hours,

watching the ball drop in New York City

while we brag about a resolution we won’t follow through on.

Goodbye, December — 'til next year.