Eve

It’s Christmas Eve, 1975
two small children sit
in front of a plump green plastic tree
their faces turn green
then red
from the blinking lights strung
carefully around the many
handmade ornaments

popsicle stick people
milk carton houses with felt roofs

they do not know that other children are having dinner
or sipping hot cocoa or opening their Christmas pajamas
one gift for each sits on the red
felt tree skirt
that they cannot open because
their father is still at the bar

blink, blink, the lights flash

green to red

Christine Brooks is a graduate of Western New England University (BA in Literature) and her MFA, from Bay Path University, is in Creative Nonfiction. Her series of vignettes ‘Small Packages’ was named a semifinalist at Gazing Grain Press in August 2018. Her essay ‘What I Learned from Being Accidentally Celibate for Five Years’ was featured by The Huffington Post, MSN, Yahoo and The Daily Mail in April 2019. Christine’s poetry collection The Cigar Box Poems was published this year.