Holiday Ornaments

I hang my bits and pieces
of writing
up here on this blog in the same way
I see and select Christmas ornaments
for our prickly tree.

Some bits I find at discount stores,
marked down,
broken bits of glass
that no one else wants to look at.

Occasionally, I'll splurge on a crystal
star or prism snowflake I hope
hits the light just right.

But my favorites are stacked away
in boxes slowly filling with mildew,
wrapped in last year's tissue paper.
These pieces of color and craft
create a kaliedescope of memories--
making new meaning each year
I rearrange their hangings on the tree.

Nothing will ever become of my ornaments.
Discarded one by one they shall be--
perhaps one or two may survive
a couple of decades. Hanging on a distant
nephew's tree out of secret obligation
until their origins become obscured.

But I will never know. For this year?
My ornaments simply feel so full, so bright,
so unageable.