Call Your Parents This Christmas

You scroll through faces

Tiny green dots

Names you know

Half-typed “Merry Christmas”

Backspace

Let it go

Their house smells like December

In your memory

Anyway

They’re setting down two extra plates

Just in case

You stay

Call your parents this Christmas

Before the dishes are done

Before the movie keeps playing

And the night just quietly runs

Say the small

Simple sentences

You’ve been saving for “someday”

Call your parents this Christmas

Don’t let “someday” drift away

You still got that old sweater

They swore you’d grow into

Frayed at both elbows now

Funny

So are you

They ask about the weather

You roll your eyes off-screen

But those questions hold a lifetime

Of the stuff

You never see

Let it ring one more time

Let it ring through the shade and pride

If it’s awkward

Let it be awkward

If you cry

That’s still alright

They don’t need a perfect you

They just want to feel your name

In their tired

Cracking voices

As the year

Turns again