84. Seasons Greetings: the Birth of Love.

  Carol Singers, Kilburn Park, Christmas 1954

        There's no trace now of St John the Evangelist Kilburn, not even a google image
        No youth club for ping pong and petting games in the dingy crypt
        No corner pub with a Sallies' band and kids loitering at the bar door
        Just a new housing development and spruced up tube station.

        The obliteration of place doesn't erase memories of it
        And one in particular shines through the cold night of a 1950s winter
        Where, in the murky streetlight of a December night,
        Coddled in woolly hats, scarves, gloves, heavy overcoats,
        Our choir of carol singers,
        Stamping our feet between the songs to warm our toes,
        Brings the Christmas message to diffident onlookers.

        Within that choir you and I
        In the innocence of our scarcely teenage years
        Our ice breaths mingling in the still air
        Contrive to share a songbook in the candlelight
        And, as our heads draw close to read the words we know by heart,
        Strands of golden hair caress my face.
        I see your shy gentle smile and breathe you in
        To jump-start my heart with the first stirrings of love.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL

Christmas Quilt - Lois Macaskill, Orewa