WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN THIS CHRISTMAS?

What do you do every year at this time
When your children have grown up and left?
How do you think of those days long ago
Without feeling so sad and bereft?

Who do you bake all those cookies for now,
All those wonderful mint brownies, too?
Who’ll eat all the fudge with pecans we have shelled,
That our kids teased that they couldn’t chew?

Where are our children who hummed while they trimmed Such a beautiful Frazier fir tree, Clapping for joy when the lights finally worked; They were happy and pleased as could be.

Where are our babies who crawled ‘neath the tree,
While they ripped all the nametags off, too?
Where is our dog with her bright Christmas bow
Always sniffing for something to chew?

Where are our children who leaped from their beds, When they first saw the light of new dawn? They called for their daddy to join in the fun While their grandfather stifled a yawn?

Where’s the new blender instruction sheet gone?
Was it tossed over there in a heap? 
Where is the Mickey Mouse watch that won’t run,
That our firstborn decided to keep?

Our children have grown and with kids of their own 
Can’t come home like they did years ago.
The phone always rings as they wish us both well;
We are loved, but we had to let go.

~~Mariane Holbrook