Christmas, cambridge, ohio, 1998

it was blue eyes, red hair and a scottish accent
that reeled me in and lured me
from maine
i played surrogate dad to 3 sons

alex, loved using my laptop and my library card
joshua, caught the football passes i threw
michael was three and just michael

we were as rare as the snowflakes
that fell in cambridge, ohio
i temped in a plastics factory
wore flannel shirts, jeans and boots
and channelled my inner springsteen

our only christmas together, maureen’s sons
strung popcorn into jewels
and wrapped it around a tree

maureen and i spent some night
in a two step at local bars
tryin to figure out what love was
every time i came into a bar
the dj’s offered to play r and b
as a way of making me feel at home
but i liked all music

maureen and the kids
put a black angel at the top
of the tree

they wanted to let me know they accepted me

Erren.Geraud.Kelly. Is entering his twenty-ninth year as a poet.he has been published in dozens of magazines and literary journals, in print and online in the United States, Canada, and around the world.Erren. Received his .B.A. In Creative Writing from  L.S.U. Erren lives in Boston.