Poetry
Porter, Anne
hind him. When he reached the house, he came up two steps and stood beyond the full-length glass of storm door and the pane of the front door. Between the two doors a large wreath of balsam...
...Where had he gone...
...Don't make a scene...
...was thinking he was probably hungry," I said weakly, sitting down, "and needed a place to get out of the cold...
...I followed my wife into the living room and my mother-inlaw asked, "Are you all right...
...As if seeing a specter, my wife's father pressed his face against the glass, turning his head this way and that, trying to look beyond the wreath...
...There was a long, nervous silence among us as we fixed the last ornaments on the tree and began cleaning up...
...I was the last to return to the living room and I watched as the man silently turned from the door and started out again through the snow, plodding toward the far opposite corner of the yard, completing a long "V" through the drifts...
...He had drawn half of his return path to the highway, with the snow piling about his ankles with each step, when my wife called to me, "Aren't you coming...
...Although I cannot speak for any of them (my wife and I through the more than four decades have never mentioned it to each other), that Christmas scene continues to haunt and perplex me...
...Can't you see we're celebrating Christmas...
...The older participants are dead now, but the rest of us are alive...
...He said, 'Can't you see we're celebrating Christmas?' and we are, as much as possible...
...He shouldn't be out on a night like this, bothering people," my father-in-law said...
...Cars occasionally passed on the high10:17 December 1993 Commonweal...
...A slightly stooped figure, he wore a long, buttonedup overcoat--its wide lapels reminded me of my own lately discarded Army overcoat--and a stocking cap pulled well over his ears...
...orty-four years ago...
...I could not distinguish his face and realized that I could not tell, even, if he were white or "colored," as we used the term then...
...I took with me as my prize a boxed set of records of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.When my wife had fallen asleep in the twin bed against the inner wall of our room, which overlooked the wide lawn, I pulled the comforter loose from the foot of the bed beside the outer wall, took my pillow from the head of the bed, placed it on the windowsill, and rested there, looking out at the night and the snow and the long tracks the man had made...
...I unplugged the window light and placed it on the floor...
...Who was he...
...Then she lowered her voice and admonished: "You are still their guest...
...We had coffee and tea, with ginger biscuits and other traditional Christmas cookies, before going up to bed...
...Between the two doors a large wreath of balsam branches and pine cones hung, so that it partly obscured him...
...He's just an old beggar," Brad said conclusively, crawling on the floor behind the tree to test the lights...
...Where had he come from...
...My wife joined me and I remarked, quarrelsomely I am sure, "What did your father say...
...I didn't answer but continued to watch the man's retreating back until he had gained the road and disappeared...
...It was no night to be outside...
...I was struggling against sleep...
...At just that moment the figure hesitated and turned toward the house, as if her voice had carried through the walls, but then he went on...
...Come back to the living room...
...For some time I was acutely aware of the wind and snow buffeting the downspout at the corner of the house...
...His coat and hat were covered with an inch of snow...
...Doesn't he know it's a holiday...
...Then, having reached a decision, he stepped back, abruptly waving his arms, and shouted: "Go away...
Vol. 120 • December 1993 • No. 22
