She puts on the best Christmas (on visit to Shauna)

I stood close to the fire
watched flames  
tell stories of their hunger    
and satisfaction    
   
I worried    
for the two giant socks    
hanging down    
from the mantle    
   
her tree    
stood proud, plump    
lavished    
with gliterful trinkets    
   
   
its lights danced, chased  
around the periphery    
then flashed    
a merry choreography    
   
and she, six, (Shauna's princess)    
was more excited    
than the time her tooth fell out    
she learned of the fairy    
who'd buy it off her  
   
she shined    
because she knew    
   
she knew    
because she'd picked    
her gifts out    
and "sent the list    
on time    
and not late"  
   
I stood    
with my own  
bags of offerings    
[that I didn't mind giving  
   
just wish    
I didn't have to]  
   
and I looked at the way  
she'd turned her house    
into a beautiful shrine  
for a man    
who'se never died  
   
because his rich blood    
hasn't been allowed  
to dry up    
   
   
wondered  
if I should've
brought the kids  
down this road    
all those years ago  
   
   
though, if nothing else    
sometimes helped    
to have two sets of eyes  
   
watching    
everything they'd done  
   
then judging them for it    
 
four days til christmas  
and I couldn't really say     
I feel any of it    
   
but I'll put on a good show  
   
she's put so much work,  
wage to it all    
and the other she, six  
is bursting    
   
with the magic  
   
her mother
    
bought off me
and sold her