Today is my favorite day of the year beyond a doubt <br />Even when I was a kid I liked it the best of all the other days in the year <br />It was the day I got to play with my new toys by myself or with just my friends <br />We could throw the baseball and my friend Perry could be Mickey Mantle <br />I was always Eddie Mathews or Hank Aaron because I hated pinstripes as a kid <br />I remember when my best friend got a go cart and I got a bike <br />Ten years later he got a Jaguar XKE and I got drafted into the army and given a gun <br />Some kids like me are always the lucky ones… <br />The day after Christmas... <br />Dad and mom were always busy arguing over how much money they had spent <br />Or what inexpensive and thoughtless gifts the in laws always gave to them <br />Not unlike today I’m sure <br />As I can hear my mother in the other room criticizing her Christmas gifts <br />And even though my father has been dead for twenty five years she says <br />He could have at least sent a damn card to let her know he cared <br />She always has been so very hard to buy for… <br />I remember how much I would try to find that perfect gift that was just for her <br />Until I realized that the word “perfect” didn’t exist in her vocabulary <br />The closest thing to it was “nice” and even it had many contextual definitions <br />Always precluding her ability to present to you her true feelings <br />Always making you feel somehow…no matter what <br />It wasn’t a proper fit <br />Ahh…here it is again, <br />The day after Christmas is my favorite day of the year <br />This year it feels a little different as the rain beats against my office window <br />And I sit here looking out on the doom and gloom as a sixty year old man child <br />With my new gun and feeling like the Lone Ranger___ <br /> <br />2007 © T Sheridan<br /><br />Ted Sheridan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/this-my-favorite-day-of-the-year/
