The Naked Tree
you used to hang a shiny star
atop my Christmas tree
you used to bake the cookies
that were quite a dellicasie
you used to wrap my present
in a shiny golden foil
darned it with a great big bow
and ribbon in a coil
you used to be the reason
that my Christmas was so grand
but your no longer with us
and I just don't understand
how I could hang a shiny star
atop my Christmas tree
when all I want for Christmas
is to have you here with me
By: Jeremy Siedlecki
Entry to "Your 'Saddest' Christmas Ever"
contest sponsored by Constance La France- A Rambling Poet
I Have No Wife To Unwrap This Year
by Rick Rucker
For well over forty years,
We always had presents, never tears.
We never spent Christmas apart
We always spent Christmas in each other’s heart.
Cancer has done its vile thing,
I have no one that wears my ring.
All the ads show couples holding
The joy of life, for them, unfolding
It seems I have no like fate,
This year I will have no mate.
I have friends that try to cheer,
But I’ll not be without a tear.
As long as I remember,
I planned for Christmas, starting in September.
So many fun things to do,
Baking cookies, buying presents, too.
Just picking out a tree,
Can be its own cause for glee.
Just doing things together made them fun,
Not the same for only one.
I’ll see her in her hospice bed,
Withered, peaceful, newly dead.
I’ll have no tree this year,
The angel that topped it is no longer here!
'Tis Christmas time once again
And much to my everlasting chagrin
I cannot seem to stop the tears
No matter the passing years.
Christmas used to be such fun
The kids up before the rising sun.
Smiles, giggles, and what not
To see what Santa had brought.
Wrapping paper everywhere
No one had a single care
For it was Christmas Day
Their one day to just play.
I awake now with a groan
As now I feel I am all alone.
No visible happiness to share
Nothing, but this utter despair.
There is no imminent joy
Neither tree nor even a toy
As this day, yet again is here
I clearly have no holiday cheer.
At work I do smile
But nothing worthwhile
As you look into my eyes
The smile is one of many lies.
No one seems to care
About my growing despair
Or have I kept it hid so well
That no one sees my secret hell?
Whatever the case may be
Pain will not let go of me.
There are no happy cheers
For me, there is just these holiday tears.
Some greenery with a big red bow
Your only gift this year.
I fasten it to frozen ground
And wipe a wayward tear.
I can't but think of other times
When there was Christmas joy
As I carefully selected
Some nice gifts for my boy.
And then as you grew older, Son,
You were so very tall
I bought your shirts with longer sleeves,
But you outgrew them all.
No shop in town for Big and Tall
I had to send away
To have a perfect fit for you
To open Christmas Day.
But you were not the sort of lad
To ask for lots of stuff.
Laying your wreath, I hear you say,
"Don't cry, Mom. It's enough."