Today is my favorite day of the year beyond a doubt
Even when I was a kid I liked it the best of all the other days in the year
It was the day I got to play with my new toys by myself or with just my friends
We could throw the baseball and my friend Perry could be Mickey Mantle
I was always Eddie Mathews or Hank Aaron because I hated pinstripes as a kid
I remember when my best friend got a go cart and I got a bike
Ten years later he got a Jaguar XKE and I got drafted into the army and given a gun
Some kids like me are always the lucky ones…
The day after Christmas...
Dad and mom were always busy arguing over how much money they had spent
Or what inexpensive and thoughtless gifts the in laws always gave to them
Not unlike today I’m sure
As I can hear my mother in the other room criticizing her Christmas gifts
And even though my father has been dead for twenty five years she says
He could have at least sent a damn card to let her know he cared
She always has been so very hard to buy for…
I remember how much I would try to find that perfect gift that was just for her
Until I realized that the word “perfect” didn’t exist in her vocabulary
The closest thing to it was “nice” and even it had many contextual definitions
Always precluding her ability to present to you her true feelings
Always making you feel somehow…no matter what
It wasn’t a proper fit
Ahh…here it is again,
The day after Christmas is my favorite day of the year
This year it feels a little different as the rain beats against my office window
And I sit here looking out on the doom and gloom as a sixty year old man child
With my new gun and feeling like the Lone Ranger___
2007 © T Sheridan
Ted Sheridan
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/this-my-favorite-day-of-the-year/
