Emily's Christmas

The out of work actress

Looks out of the window

Watching snow fall, like sugar, on Paris

Her coffee is cold

She's been dreaming for hours

Of ballrooms and dresses so lavish

 

That the lights in the trees

Can hardly be seen

She's a one woman Christmas parade

But a bill on a saucer

Clatters down next to her

She turns to see waiters playing ‘drink up' charades

 

And outside

Her slushy footprints are still waiting

A map home

When she follows them

The shape beneath her feet is wrong

Backwards

 

On her last turn but one

The alley-cats scatter

The ones that she feeds every night

They leave behind something

An envelope something

Lying in the pool of a streetlight

 

She opens it up

Inside is a note

The snow flutters around like bees

The alley-cats watch

As she goes back to the boulevard

Climbs up, and takes the lights from the trees

 

And Emily

Wrapped in Christmas lights

Shuts her eyes

And goes dancing in ballrooms

On Christmas night