December 25, 2022The Ukrainian Flag Stares through the Balsam Fir from Larry’s Trees
just take it he said & I doubted
generosity are you sure? still $30 short
I’ve learned nothing is free
in this country his
white mustache curled
to a smile I’m Larry & this
is the south & these are my trees
how easy to claim what soil gives
to own trees & bodies
to give them away to strangers
so my children can hang
the shatterproof ornaments & ask for more
light while in Ukraine
the bulbs won’t spark the heat
won’t radiate the soil will stay
snow-covered & theirs &
in my house strings & strings
of electric rainbow dazzle
trail the evergreen & walls & wind
my children’s small limbs
here in Arkansas it’s barely cold
enough to light a fire
but we can & do with oak
& crabapple we home
its added glow so everything
smells of invited smoke & pine
not invaded smoking sky where
the windows flicker with candlelight
& shellings & tomorrow
I will bake gingerbread & fry
latkes & light the candles
forbidden in my Soviet childhood
tomorrow I will pray
to a god I don’t believe in
for more miracle tomorrow
I will still have been born
from darkness & wick & tonight
when I lift my daughter
to place the silver star on the highest branch
& my American mother-
in-law takes a photo
the only light will be the yellow-
blue horizon of the flag
frozen in the window behind us
from Poets Respond