Swagger Tree (Composite Poem)

I asked the Swagger team to send in a stanza or two about a Christmas tree memory. I sent them [little tree] by E. E. Cummings as inspiration. In return I compiled their words into a collective poem. I got back some great pieces that tell a story, like Graziella's first tree in 1949 Italy that was sent to her by her American grandmother, fully decorated with butterscotch balls.
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Swagger Tree

Arbor
Juniper, green
Smelling, sparkling, exciting
Butterscotch-gold-candy-covered
First tree.
Delicate boughs,
dressed up for the season.
she stares up from the bottom,
mesmerized, enchanted, intrigued.

Delicate orange curls,
a dress for the season
she twirls with delight,
a birthday wish come true.
A lifetime ago

you and I crawled underneath

your parents' tree

holding hands and looking up
at the constellations
twinkling overhead
I used to decorate a pine
With ornaments and lights.
I loved its piney needle smell
On cozy winter nights.

No artificial tree could be
As lovely to behold
Until I learned pine allergy
Was not a Christmas cold.

A tree transported,
thousands of miles traveled,
a desert oasis of lights
that made me believe.
Evergreen

Gnarled and grey

Dropped needles in brittle heaps
Love anyway.

Regina Gort