Packing Up Cristmas Poem by Diana Rosser

Packing up Christmas,
taping up memories.

A flock of green parakeets
are sitting in the bare pear tree,
Chaffinches fall to the ground
like leaves.

The fairy from Arusha,
how old is it now?
Nearly half a century,
maybe more.

A golden string of notes
unravelled from school days
not so long ago.

Mum and Dad's tree,
my childhood,
their childhood.

Folded away
into a box labelled South African sherry.
How far that has travelled,
Nigeria, Switzerland,
Home.