THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE

Robert P. Tristram Coffin

Solo 1: I felt I must be nearly man-grown now,

For they had sent me after the Christmas tree,

All: They had left it to him to decide

What a proper Christmas tree should be.

Solo 1: They trusted me to take the sharpest axe,

I carried it over my shoulder like a man.

All: It took a lot of balancing, for the thing

Was half as long as he was in its span

Solo 1: I went as quiet as a man would go,

I surprised a squirrel into laughter,

All: And a partridge went up from a stump

And left a roll of sudden thunder after,

Solo 1: The first fir was too wide for any room,

The next was on a hillside, and the win

Had blown it all one way, south side was good

But the northern side of it was thinned.

All: He took his time. (Solo 1) A tree outdoors

looked small, But when you got it in a room,

It grew strangely taller, somehow and its plume

Bent sidewise on the ceiling all askew.

A boy has eyes much bigger than his belly,

My father always said. (All) He must take

care not to be a boy. He found the right tree,

It was too lovely, though. He left it there.

Solo 1: I found one almost perfect at the last,

I walked three times around it to make sure,

All: He lopped the lower boughs off neat and even

And brought it down with two cuts to the core.

Solo 1: I took it at the balance, standing deep

With feathery boughs half smothering my face.

All: He walked in fragrance down the darkening hill

The stars were coming out in deep blue space.

Solo 1: The brightest star of all just tipped my burdens

A man’s strength rippled in my boyish thighs

All: His breath was round him like the down of angels

Solo 1: I walked in Christmas deep as my two eyes.