"All the Best" by John C. Mannone, Frequent Contributor

All the Best

John C. Mannone

            After John Prine

Love is like a Christmas card

full of glitter, tinsel and stars

in my eyes, and that beautiful

tree sparkling red and silver

bulbs from its boughs. Love is

like those presents under there,

wrapped up tight, hidden inside

the box, covered with glistening

paper and fancy bows. Yesterday,

the mailman delivered Christmas

cards sent from you, a plain Jane

envelope stamped not from the

North Pole, but rather from the

law firm of Curtis, Klein & Borg.

Poet’s Notes:  Christmas isn’t always the happiest time for some. The poem takes its title from a song written and performed by John Prine on being handed a divorce for a Christmas present from his former wife. A sonnet-like form was chosen for the irony since sonnets originally were love themed. A YouTube connection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzw3-Qyp4c0 and some of the lyrics:

I guess that love is like a Christmas card

You decorate a tree you throw it in the yard.

It decays and dies, and the snowmen melt.

Well I once knew love. I knew how love felt.

Yeah, I knew love, love knew me,

and when I walked love walked with me,

and I got no hate, and I got no pride.

Well I got so much love that I cannot hide

I got so much love that I cannot hide.

Editor’s Note:  I like this poem, especially its ironically sonnet-like form.  The set up to the tragic ending is perfectly executed, and the use of enjambment is simply marvelous.  John originally submitted this one in response to my call for Christmas-themed poems for 2016.  I decided to delay its publication until well into January 2017 as I was looking for a more uplifting message for the season for Songs of Eretz.