Absent Friends ©

A new year. a clean page
Waits in anticipation
Unwritten as yet... clean as snow
A threshold between old and new
Bells ring and resound

So close to Christmas
Yet set apart
Shortbread in the box
Iced cake still in the tin
And the fridge has a spare tyre

I hide behind bustle. tidying
Seeing in the year with clean windows
A clever ruse to cover the space
That dear ones have left vacant
Who in days past did these same things