(P. Ferguson image, December 2022)
…For Rosemary and her brothers
The tree this year may be small but shines no less brightly. There may be one less this day at our table but somehow we will find the way. It’s a new road now but one we all travel.
Beside the tree a solitary Christmas penguin. To the other side a dish carrying ceramic bear waiting days now for the single chocolate to disappear. Wantmore and friends are about – scampering to the tree…fretting – it’s different these days. The family they know are about, but quiet. It’s not like them. Wantmore and his family enjoy the lights – bright colours – but no crumb bits are about these festive days. The mice-kin understand.
And when the tree lights come on at night and the music plays behind…all know what we are thinking…in hope…that a single chocolate will disappear by morning.
An Irish Rose…Margaret Mary Audrey May (nee McManus)
12 June 1926 – 22 December 2022