It’s a shame Christmas
comes only once
a year
we need more joy
in our lives
we did our part
visited the Berkeley
Telegraph Outdoor
Festival Stroll
booths lined up
on both sides
and light and color
and music and people
lots of people
happy eager questing people
the old couple smiling
Merry Christmas we exchanged
and coming back the other way
saw them “Hello again”
and stalls cheek to jowl
the scarves the jewelry
the perfumes the place name hats
the lawn ornaments
and formed and fired clay
the plaques and paintings
the watercolor artist
maybe over photographs
but east coast training
a nice fellow we bought
a packet of his cards
better than his competition
painter more literal down the street
and imports and handcrafts
the honey jams and jellies
things locally sourced
and African fabrics
and the tooled leather belts
we saw last year
but missed this time
the political booths
hawking slogans
half digested
and the wonderful display
scrap metal welded
sci-fi figures from every movie
and TV series
we had to stop
and look and talk
and a food booth
at the lower end
we reluctantly bypassed
the record stores
we loved and saved
for sometime later
and hungry we went up
to Raleigh’s
sat outside
too cold
came back in
to wonderful food
and drink
it is a pub
and so much food
take away left overs
for next day Christmas eve
and noticing but not reacting to
the obvious homeless
who come out
to join in
and the owners of the booths
some jocular and hand-shaking
but many trying to smile
over the grim realization
that they might not cover
the cost of renting space
but we kept to joy
carried our leftovers
to the car
drove home
let the joy loose
filled the house
decided even if
only on our own
we’d do the joy
more than once a year