Holiday Dinners

Knives out, we pull our chairs up to the table,
and sit, while dreading that which is to come.
No, love is not enough. We are unable --
wherever we may be or we are from --
unable to suppress our hurts and losses.
Find difficulty in expressing love.
The hurts seem to win out. We bear our crosses,
and see those closest as the cause thereof.
Yet most of us come back to face this music,
accompanied by chimes of Jingle Bells.
If God looks in, must find it quite amusing,
these get togethers, all those little hells...
And then it's all kiss, kiss, until next year.
A step outside. A sigh. We're in the clear.