April 23, 2025: In honor of national poetry month, MyhometownBronxville.com is featuring poems every week of April written by Bronxville poets.  Below is a poem by Bronxville resident Majorie Mir.

KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN WEAVES HER WEB ABETTED BY AUNT MARGARET

Until then,

the fates of Andersen’s tin soldier

and his love, the paper dancer,

were all I knew of tragic endings.

Until the day I followed Sheila

to an unsuspected upstairs room

where we found, to my surprise,

her Great-Aunt Margaret,

large, smiling, seated in an armchair.

She asked us did we want to hear a story.

We did and sat on either arm.

The one she chose,

 The Bird’s Christmas Carol,

began happily enough in a nursery,

among the Birds, a boisterous family,

but, true to Victorian tradition,

Carol, the cherished, youngest child,

born on Christmas day, must die.

Startled, struggling against tears,

I wanted and did not want

the story to go on.

She closed the book,

saying she would read more

another time.

It never came.

Alone, a few years later,

I read the book again

sitting in our yard,

this time allowed the tears

full vent, learning there is luxury,

even pleasure to be had

in crying over books.