My wish is to spend Christmas
in New Orleans once again,
the reveillon, the Christmas feasts,
oysters, mud bugs, gumbo, beignets,
sweet music in the streets,
in all the day and night.

New Orleans’ wish for Christmas?
The undertone of loss
in reveillon and Christmas feasts,
missing the music in the streets.
Who is gone? What is left? Who
does she wish to see tonight?

This poem was written for Miz Quickly’s Day Twenty-Nine Challenge to write two parallel poems about wishes, one concrete and one abstract.