After the soiree ends and the mess
is picked up, after the forgotten
friends forgive the faux pas
of lost invitations, after the babies
have screamed all evening, and exhausted,
they sleep in their beds, I still believe
that people are good, and fire is bad.
I retrieve and count the needles left
from the shedding evergreen,
and carefully pack away the shiny
baubles. After the candles
are extinguished without incident,
I drown them in the full bathtub,
and fill up a large garbage bag
with their waxy gray bodies.
Perhaps this is wasteful,
but the clock’s ticking,
the phone’s ringing, the alarm’s
screaming, and the dreams
of children are close to their end.
--
Cat Dixon is the author of What Happens in Nebraska (Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2022) along with six other poetry chapbooks and collections. She is a poetry editor with The Good Life Review. Recent poems published in Thimble Lit Mag, Poor Ezra’s Almanac, and Moon City Review.