Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. Today’s featured poet is James Morehead.
Morehead is Poet Laureate of Dublin, California. He has two poetry books "canvas: poems” his debut collection and “portraits of red and gray.” He is also the host of the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast. James' poem "tethered" was transformed into an award-winning, hand drawn animated short film, "gallery. This was set to music for baritone and piano. Some of his poems have appeared in Wingless Dreamer, Prometheus Dreaming and Prompt Press. Here’s his Christmas poem "Among the Scattered Ribbons and Crumpled Paper."
I watch Juno crawl between chair legs and swinging feet
over a bailey built of boxes
that surrounds a pine tree with red and gold
to paw at the twinkling lights suspended above.
When dinner ends, our feet shuffle to sofas and nooks.
Emily and Evvie are grown now—
too old to be children
not old enough to have them.
A leader is chosen
selecting boxes one by one, weakening the wall
and startling Juno who scoots back under the table,
silent and hidden with eyes wide open—on alert.
Paper is ripped with a chhh chhh chhh then tossed,
her ears perk as she readies to pounce,
claw and tumble, head over paws
in a bundle of fur.
It's her first Christmas with us.
Next year when the decorations go up
she'll be ready—waiting to roll in the ruins of
scattered ribbons and crumpled paper.
At this point
I think of Christmases past
when my daughters were kittens, scampering
and squealing for their next gift.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.