CONTRAST

Our new neighbors have put up
their Christmas lights, have festooned
their shrubs with them, spread
them across the bare branches
of their maple tree, trailed them
over the ledges of their windows, strung
them fetchingly around their front
door. It’s lovely. Really, it is.
You might even, if you are given to
hyperbole, call it breathtaking.

However, it makes me think that
our usual practice of turning on
our front porch light might, this year,
be regarded, by some, as inadequate.