Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve - a poem

                            Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve

And on Christmas Eve we all went

by double decker and  Tube

to Westminster Abbey,.

sundry Kiwis and Aussies and Swiss

and myself.

 What a lovely thing it was,

with boy’s choir in crimson  and white and ruffles,

the cathedral full to the brim,

much pomp and circumstance.

And then I don’t remember.

It was a special Christmas

all of us so far away from home

We tried to make it special

with Christmas dinner in a restaurant

and then a party afterwards

and I remember that we watched Sound of Music

for me for the first time

 though I had been brought up

on the music .

One time we went to Petticoat Lane

and went to a Jewish restaurant and had blintzes

with sour cream and cherry sauce,

and twice we went to Portobello Road

and bought jewelry and Indian silk scarves

and then,

we went caroling all around the Chelsea streets

and to Renaissance music at the national theater

and pantomime at the Old Vic,

And oh so many things.

But I digress - it was

Christmas Eve  at Westminster Abbey.

Yes, that’s where I began.