Thoughtful Sunday

"You won't be thinking of Christmas
when spring finally rolls around
and the sap rises in the trees,
but the syrup you'll have
on your Christmas breakfast
must be made now.
The potatoes and corn for your Christmas feast
must be weeded all summer,
and the apples for your Christmas pies
must be picked in the fall.

You see, to have a Christmas like Helen's,
you'll need to work that land
all year long,
and know that hill farm in all its seasons."

A Christmas Like Helen's, Natalie Kinsey-Warnock  2004.