christmas with haya
that year the oldest was away,
her boyfriend was in china teaching english
so they decided to celebrate in hong kong.
it was the first time one of the kids had opted-out
it felt significant.
then the middle one asked if her friend from college
could come instead.
haya couldn't go home because haya's home was syria.
we took family photos
sent them to hong kong
and laughed a lot.
on christmas day our guest
gave us a map, some postcards and spices
from her village
those spices made everything we cooked taste better,
for months.
Steve Shepherd writes poems and takes photographs. He used to make radio programmes, mostly jazz.