~After They’ve Gone Blues~

Presents all opened and admired

now safely secured for travel

Everyone talking at the same time

with hugs and goodbye tears

Standing in front of the fireplace

I slip out of my shoes

and pour a glass of wine

then put my holiday face away

The house and myself once again

begin to settle back into the quiet

of living alone

I believe the house remembers

the sounds of a family

of children’s running feet

the laughter and tears of living

In this solitude I am not alone

those seasonal blues drape around me

playing hide and seek

with my equilibrium

So for tonight memories leave me

stranded on the barrier of loneliness

© 2006

Carole Mathys