Advent

This is becoming one of my favorites.  It certainly comes from the 2020 pandemic context, but I don't think it needs to be limited to that.  

"Advent"

Instrumentation: guitar, organ

The Advent candles burn low this year

My waistband runs long with the cookies and the beer

Days grow short, nights grow long

My hopes limp a step behind the words of a song

A song I can hear in memories way back

Was it '93 or '94, it's hard to keep track

As a flickering light winks at me from the tree

"Happy Christmas" it says to me silently

Got no place to go, few people to see

Time on my hands, some ice on my knee

I'm not twenty anymore, or thirty for that matter

I'm a little slower, a little rounder, and my mind's more scattered

Let these old floors creak their lullabies

Let our eyes close, let the radiators sigh

Let the unseen become the heard

Singing our story without so much as a word 

A story in which candlelight shines

And we pretend to enjoy drinking mulled wine

My hopes catch up with the lines of that song

A little quicker, a little sharper, we were there all along

So this Christmas let's sit right here

Here in this room with those far away near

And listen to the words rise from underneath

And the distance between shrinks like the candles on this wreath

The Advent candles burn low this year...