Delirious Hem

catherine daly



*

Advent Calendar

...................for Susana Gardner

every day looming
..............gloaming?

doors in the narrative Black Forest
..or flaps in sentimental landscapes:
shelters made of food, not shelter, trimmed white
trees

not passion-purple candles, but

accumulating light
counting physically, toward
a special calendar, liturgical year winding:

bedew us, bestow hope, focus
on abject bird, candy cane, winter flower
within this seasonal scene, no
on the piece of cardboard below it,

used once like a puzzle, a surprise
...............(not re-gifted)
quote withing the month, pattern

night and day verging midwinter
....."slant of light"

one, two, three, touching is a door, window
open to the birth
or end

*

Catherine Daly writes holiday poems alternate years. Two of her Christmas poems, and many of her other occasional poems, are in her most recent book, Vauxhall (Shearsman, 2008).