Speaking of Acts of Love and Service

Who fluffs the tree in your home?

Perhaps my greatest act of love
during the holiday season is to fluff the tree.

May I be so bold
as to suggest that there is really only one way
to fluff the tree:

Start at the bottom
in a spiral motion going up the tree
take each individual branch
and fluff every spree
as if it were reaching
for a sun never seen--

[sorry, carried away by the simple
rhyme of eeeeee]

anyway. The whole process
is tedious and scratchy--
particularly if one's hands
are often dry this time of year.
Lotion doesn't always help (it can
magnify the pricks, actually).

But if I didn't fluff the tree,
someone, no doubt, would attack the thing
with arms out stretched, from the top down,
willy-nilly, until the poor thing
looked, well, half-*ssed.


Oh look: it's snowing at the picture window.
How appropriate.
Is 9:47 really too early for wine?