Almost 10 a.m.
The day after
Christmas
Standing in the
return line
Trading in gifts for cash
Later exchanged for
lottery tickets and beer
Almost funny
We tell ourselves it’s a joke
That we’re not the losers in line
In front of us
In back of us, all around us
Almost dark
When we get back home
Make some dinner
Turn the furnace all the way up to sixty
Watch some T.V.
Almost 2 a.m.
Out of beer
She is passed out on the couch
I turn off the lights so I can listen to the snow
swirling past the windows
Almost beautiful
White confetti against a backdrop of exhausted row houses
Blinking red and green lights
The occasional angry cab driver
Some cheesy Christmas music from the apartment downstairs
Almost beautiful