'Twas the Night Before Christmas - A 2024 Poetry Challenge by Tim Taylor

 

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house

Nothing was stirring, except a woodlouse

Crawling out of its hole in the trunk of the tree

That we’d put in the lounge – it was Christmas, you see.

It was already rotten and structurally weak

It began to lean over, an ominous creak

Could be heard, then soon after, an almighty crash.

As the tree hit the floor and the baubles were smashed.

At the sound of the racket we came down the stairs

And surveyed the grim tableau in utter despair

Could we rescue our tree, now reduced to a shrub?

Concluding we couldn’t, we went to the pub.

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"Rotten tree" by ShinyPhotoScotland is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.