July 2021 - tangled in lights

[Kaje]

The winner for this month's prompt picture is this kiss in a loop of lights. Give us your haiku, short story, poem or flash fiction for this prompt. Any length is great, just keep it YA and LGBTQ.

[Kaje]

This time

You said when we met,
"I don't do Christmas."
Laughed and added,
"Or any holiday, so you know."

I didn't care
Hot summer turning your skin bronze.
A kiss, a laugh, a moment,
Christmas was six months away.

You said, "I don't do Halloween.
"But it's fine if you want to."
Dressing up was a favorite thing
But caramel-apples kisses with you were better.

You said, "I don't have family.
Thanksgiving's just another day."
I bought a turkey and all the fixings.
We had leftovers for weeks.

You said, "Don't buy me anything."
I promised that I wouldn't.
You caught me looking at lights,
And trees. And said nothing.

December twenty-fourth.
You said, "It's fine if you want to go home."
I said, "I am home.
There's cocoa on the stove."

I fell asleep on the couch
And woke to hear bells
Churches, in this modern age
Still ringing in the Child.

I said, "Let's go to bed."
You said, "A walk first?"
I couldn't deny you anything.
Didn't want to. "Sure."

You didn't hold my hand
Fiddled in the pocket of your hoodie
As we walked along the lake.
City lights like bright stars on the water.

We passed small shops.
All closed, but the fronts still lit in season colors.
Or in white fairy lights
Like stars on the wood and glass and brick.

In front of one, you stopped.
Pulled a tangle of wires from your pocket.
Laughed, fumbled, flicked a switch,
Tiny lights wrapped around your hands.

"Stand still, just like that."
You wreathed the strand around me
Then around yourself
And put your hands on my arms.

"I don't do holidays," you said.
"Don't do celebrations.
"Don't do family and all that shit.
"Never look at Christmas lights."

You brushed a hand down my cheek, neck, shoulder
Gripped my arms tight.
"You make me want a hundred things,"
You whispered, mouth close to mine.

"A hundred things I never did.
"I see lights in your eyes and I want.
"I taste family in your cooking and I'm hungry
"I hear you hum fucking Jingle Bells."

Your mouth brushed mine.
"Can't promise I'll be great at it.
"Can't promise we'll last.
"But will you celebrate with me, tonight?"

"Will you be my family?
"Will you teach me to love holidays?"
"We're young. I guess it's dumb
"To want forever."

I kissed the words off your lips.
Dumb was something you'd never been.
"We'll never know," I said.
"Unless we try."

They stopped selling bulbs for those lights
A couple of years ago;
We still strung them up, gaps and all.
Perhaps this year, we'll replace them at last

Christmas lights don't last for decades
Memories do
White lights like stars against your skin
And a leap into forever.

[Stephen]

Kaje wrote: "
You said when we met,
"I don't do Christmas."
Laughed and added,
"Or any holiday, so you know."


LOVED it

[TrixieB]

Oh my goodness Kaje!! That's AWESOME. <3

[Kaje]

<3 Thank you both. Glad you liked it. :)