Poetry - Alone for the Holidays

All alone with minor keys of country music

Washing the back draft of my sins

Pulling liquid from my heart they call blood

It’s the holidays again and I am alone

In this crowded room of intimate strangers

Not a mother, brother, cousin, or dog of mine

I sit with the music pounding now

Squished between bad smelling men

A toast. And wine bumps down my sleeve

Some long gone god is involved in this

Standing shoulder to other shoulder

The music belts out the best of the blues

I eat at the buffet from the finest chinette

Alone staring down at my food

None of it looks sanitary or savoury

But Elton reassures “This is you song”

Almost time to go

I open my pressies with disappointment

I squeeze my way past bodies to the host

I say something I memorized from a greeting card

Shuffling outside

I look for my car

Alone again for the holidays