POETRY              
 

Alone at Christmas 

Reena Georgea 

a MD, DNB, FRCP Edin., Department of Continuing Medical Education, Christian Medical College, 
Vellore, India 

 

I longed  
to give you  
a gift, 
a pearl  
of great price. 
 
Crafted 
within my wounds   
and nourished  
with body and blood, 
the pearl grew  
lovely and luminous. 
 
Tenderly wrapped 
in gentle hues  
the lovely blues 
of sky and sea, 
it waited beneath 
the Christmas tree. 
 
Christmas came 
and went. 
You were busy. 
I understand.  
I always do. 
 
The tree and I  
continued sitting 
by the window 
with smiling 
fairy lights on. 
 
Then it was Lent, and I  
had to put away 
that old tree. 
 

The neighbours 
were sniggering  
you see. 
 
But the pearl and I,  
we sat waiting 
for you, my beloved, 
Prodigal daughter. 
 
And then you came! 
and I ran,  
holding my walking stick  
and your gift. 
 
You opened 
the silken blue 
box, saying,  
“Beautiful, thank you!” 
 
But then you saw  
that Graceful glow 
and stopped, “No, 
I can’t take this.” 
 
“Please,” I begged. 
“It was made for you 
with all that 
I Am.” 
 
“But I am  
not worthy,” 
you whispered. 
 
Only then, 
My heart broke,  
and I wept. 

 



George 

July 2021. Christian Journal for Global Health 8(1)   
 

 
Peer Reviewed: Submitted 31 Jan 2021, accepted 19 Feb 2021, published __ July 2021 
 
Competing Interests: None declared.     
 
Correspondence: Reena George, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. 
reena.vellore@gmail.com                    

 
Cite this article as: George R. Alone at Christmas. Christ J Global Health. July 2021; 8(1):88-89.  
 
© Author. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative 
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and 
reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly cited. To 
view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

  

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