Sepia hued

smoke-filled aroma

of spicy gingerbread,

pervasive odours

of holly,ivy

and mulled wines;

infusing kitchen,scullery

and dining room,

evoking a childhood

with their forgotten

boxed presents

under the enormous

seasonal bough,

its array of

waxen lights

twinkling,twinkling

long into memory

and myth;

the greetings

and the joy

in Alpine setting

of hearth

and ” Heimat ”

Advent,Christkindl

and ” Stillenacht “;

their longing

recalled by chance,

by stray snatch

of melody,

returning,returning

to an innocence lost,

to a card once

annotated

“frohe weihnachten,A.E.”

now,here,

now in a place

where that birth happened

but no longer counts,

A.E.

Prisoner,

Adolf Eichmann.

(*Footnote:Notorious Nazi War criminal Adolf Eichmann was abducted by Israeli Mossad agents from Argentina and was put on trial on December 15 1961 in Israel)