Decorating a Christmas Tree

Decorating a Christmas Trees

Somewhere

Between blatantly intentional

            And helplessly random;

Somewhere

Between concrete fact

            And magically inventive;

Somewhere

            Between true recollections

            And recollections understood as truth,

I hand pick life events

            From the stores of life events

Stacked up in closets

Stuffed under beds

Buried in the backyard

Junk left here by friends

Some events large

Some small

Some just made up

I string them along

Like popcorn and cranberries

Hanging on Grandma’s Christmas tree

And that’s my story

I hang it up on the tree

For all to see

Right next to Aunt Judy’s wooden elf

            A story of her own

And Great Grandma’s handmade tinsel

            A story no one really believes

And this weird glass snowman

            That appears each year,

            But no one knows whose it is

I hang it on the tree

For all to see

            With reruns of War of the Worlds

                        Playing on the radio

            With wall to wall news of wars

Playing on the television

With culture wars songs

                        Playing on an ipod

This is my story

This is my song

Inside of your story

Inside of your song