Coughing Up Tinsel & Crystal Flakes by the Open Fire I Saw Mommy Burying Santa Beneath the Snow Baby, It’s Cold Outside, But I’m Safer in the Blizzard Chronically in Love (but Only Under the Mistletoe) O Naked Tree (Let Your Freak Flag Fly) Lips Like Agony & Cranberry Velvet It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Crime Scene One More Dose of Eggnog and Xanax Handing Out Presents Wrapped in Secondhand Prose Black Ice, Blacker Hearts Jingle All the Way (Out of My Responsibilities) Laughter & Cheer Swells (with Spiked Tears & Seasonal Affective Disorder) O Holy Marijuana Cross! All I Want for Christmas Is Silent Nights & a Lobotomy

Prompts used (tags are the poets’ IG handles):

@theconstantpoet - “black ice & blacker hearts” @loisofthehearth - “Jingle All the Way (Out of My Responsibilities)” @papertearspoetry - “wrapped in prose” @arcanapoetrypress - “one more does of silent protest” - from A Heretic Without a Home by Megan Kemple @megkpoetry @kaytpoems - “coughing up crystal flakes” + “don’t kiss him; his lips are a different kind of agony” @libbyjenner.poetry - “laughter and cheer swells” @chris_kads + @alinakay66 + @esb.poems - “cranberry velvet” @rosepapercastles - “Christmas party playlist” @lorrainefaepoetry - “buried beneath the snow” @maryoliversdrunkcousin - “‘You have a freak flag. You just don’t fly it.’ - from The Family Stone” @elenaspoetry - “chronically in love” @jasmine.s.higgins - “naked trees” @alexismromo - “The balance between being brave and staying safe”