There are reasons
for loving the holidays
apart from conventional wisdom.

There is the joy
of having visitors,
in-laws, arms-length cousins.

Not only visitors,
but helpers.

That’s why I love my in-laws.
They appear in my kitchen
—” and help.

This is a foreign concept.
I cook alone,
I cut alone,
The heat is my decision.

The rest of my family
looks at me
in this mass of ladies
—” helpmates.

I think,
—They think I am annoyed.—
by these ladies
who naturally
—” help.

I’m not
you know…

I love them,
sharing the work,
the creation,
the glory of the doing,

The result doesn’t matter.
The help
matters.

That is —“
a holy day.