"I pledge allegiance to the flag ..."

"Our Father, who art in heaven ..."

"I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution ..."

These and other words, read or remembered, seem to always echo in my mind with a multitude of other voices around me, saying the words almost, but not quite, in sync, my own voice strongest in my head, but blending into the multitude.

There are other words, read or remembered, that also echo in my mind with a multitude of voices, but all of those versions of my own voice, saying the words almost, but not quite, in sync, my present voice strongest in my head, but blending into the multitude:

"I hear her speaking words of love,

and my mind scatters like storm deer 

under moonlight.

Careful words and

forever is not one of them,

yet still I'd run from them

along places I've never been,

following storm deer.

There are no words of love

unless received in love:

We stay, 

shadows of storm deer around

but not between us."

I wrote those words almost 47 years ago, about a friend who broke up with me a year later.

In the aftermath of that blow, I turned to friends for help and support, one of whom slowly became foremost in friendship, and eventually love, even through episodes of storm and shadow.

I took a break in writing this to go into the other room and tell her I love her forever forever forever.

Of everything about this season, the best Christmas presence is hers.