Home for the Holidays

The lights are out in downtown Everett

Christmas music is blaring from street corner speakers

as I walk from the bar to the hockey arena

Our team is not good

but we Everett people

are a classy bunch

we stay civil

even when our team is down 6-2

at the end of the second period

A pony-tailed man

three rows up on center-ice

holds a hockey stick

with a teletubie

dressed in a referee outfit

hanging from a noose

I think it’s tinkie-winkie

He leads us in a liturgy

leader: HEY REF

congregation: YOU SUCK

leader: That’s for you Johnson

you jackass

While it doesn't look like our team
will mount a comeback of any type

it still feels good to be home

especially for the holiday season

celebrating it with thousands of drunks

the way my family has always observed the holidays

with blind, irrational, and misplaced rage.