Barbie Atop the Pole
Barbie stripped of her cover, nestled among the decorations atop the pole.
A barbie, unclothed and discarded as a toy no-one uses or plays with, adorned atop the tree missing branches and needles. Bare in more spots than one.
Decorated unevenly on each branch by little helpers with ornaments passed down from generation to generation.
A styrofoam snowman missing eyeballs, and the tackiest ugliest glitter(ish) jingle bells from the dollar store used as tinsel.
Pictures of children in their elementary days, framed in construction paper.
The back, dated in sharpie, written with backwards letters and incorrectly spelled.
Memories that are forever carved and etched in the foam stickers that hold the snapshot nestled inside the ornament your child made you and held so proudly in their bookbag and waited to bring home from school to show off.
Glass ones broken and busted, hung with string or thread and fishing hooks encrusted with worm guts instead of new ones designed to hang new ones with each year’s passing.
One could have easily purchased new ones but they would not hold the same symbolism as the dirty tattered ones.
