A Christmas Present

A Christmas Present Peeling back the memories and peering inside I feel wrought with pain seeing you alone on the bar stool and the glass half-full of whiskey I look at the presents sitting untouched and waiting under the tree It's been fifty years now but it's fresh as the morning dew Are you sad and did anyone give you a Merry Christmas Did anyone love you and hold you dear Life has many twists and turns and the winds They move us on even when we want to stay with the pain Those feelings drive me home where they live and are nourished The Christmas music plays on and the world spins until I look in the mirror I wander if anyone loves me and thinks of me on my own bar stool holding my glass , empty and waiting to be filled Do they know every time I laughed as a Christmas song played in remembrance I thought of where you were but I denied that I cared and the song carried I cared as I waited for you to come after each promise and the tears I care now as I unwrap each memory on Christmas still I care that maybe I don't try enough to be your opposite Maybe I will end like you, alone and on a bar stool with the laughter that eludes That when I'm but a distant peeling of remembrance Will anyone unwrap my broken heart and hold Who will unwrap my love and open the box and see And who will be the first to wear me with pride For My Father who was an alcoholic