Love Poem: Tinsel
Zachary Gilstrap Avatar
Written by: Zachary Gilstrap

Tinsel

Spattering sparks flicker 
in her eyes, highlighting 
each salty rivulet as they 
roll down on to the 
carpet stair. 

The jolly tunes are her 
confidant, 
the garland and tinsel her jury. 

“The car snapped in half,”
she hears, failing to grasp how
souls can be plucked like 
birthday cake candles, 
leaving deformed icing
no one wants to lick. 

It is indeed a white 
Christmas, 
bloodless and loveless, 
deathly pale with tended 
fangs looking for love for 
sale. 

As she cries, and as the 
little drummer boy’s 
snare pops drag slightly 
behind her bare sobs, 

she imagines how he sleeps in 
heavenly peace, 
his remnants reserved in 
her every last teardrop.