(Poem 359 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

My husband loves
to drive around aimlessly
looking for Christmas lights
this time of year
when Christmas music
is the only thing that plays
on Magic 95.5 FM
on the car radio.

There are always entire
neighborhoods that seem
to have caught the spirit,
and those are to be expected,
but more surprising is the
one house that chooses
to decorate in the midst
of a sea of surrounding darkness.

Or my favorite, the lone
darkish house in that
over-the-top community
that obviously is just
too tired or disinterested
to participate fully,
and instead throws a few
lights over one little bush.

We always judge like we
are experts in house lighting,
forgetting temporarily
that we have never put
a single light on any house
ever, but that doesn’t matter
because we are mad
with power—
The award for biggest carbon footprint goes to, drumroll please…
The award for best Star Wars themed yard goes to…
The award for most snowmen
The award for prettiest light show
The award for Halloween-turned-Christmas
The award for most nostalgic
The award for creepiest gigantic blow-up creature hovering above the house
The award for most crap thrown together at the last minute

And a few honorable mentions
for the ones who look like they
started to decorate, but got tired
halfway through and just gave up.

@Home Studio – 359th poem of the year

Runner ups for the Looking at Lights photos to accompany my poem:

We saw a bunch of blow-up Christmas characters this year. They have gotten really popular.

Meh…we tried…