The Christmas Bench

THE PARK BENCH AT CHRISTMAS she shed first her hat, gloves and scarf. later her glamorous coat, leggings and shoes. she snatched off her dress to catch the eye, then brassiere and panties but no man partook. she plucked her eyebrows and hair off her scalp, clipped fingers and toes and her iceberg nose, then in utter horror, as she grew older, various parts in a most vulnerable way began to fall away. snowbirds begin to whisper of a skeletal noose — the clickety-clack of a virgin’s jaw in maudlin movement, as only the geese head South, her regret grows madder yet. on the bench Madge sits in silvertone chattering bone “all alone….all alone...all alone” 11/19/2018 Sandra Kendrick’s The Park Bench At Christmas Poetry Contest Poem based upon a photo showing the skeleton of a woman waiting on a park bench hoping to find a man tolove her