![When I was two or three
and my mother read to me
When Alice fell down the rabbit hole
I fell down the rabbit hole
tumbling over and over in the air
the memory is still there
Ribbon candy and real candles on the tree
Christmas chocolates made at home
from a factory recipe someone
slipped to someone on a train
Taste buds still budding
tasting with my whole body
Slowly I've forgotten how
only love and fear can do it now](https://i0.wp.com/www.neilmeili.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Tastes-of-Childhood.jpg?resize=600%2C600)
Tastes of Childhood
![When I was two or three
and my mother read to me
When Alice fell down the rabbit hole
I fell down the rabbit hole
tumbling over and over in the air
the memory is still there
Ribbon candy and real candles on the tree
Christmas chocolates made at home
from a factory recipe someone
slipped to someone on a train
Taste buds still budding
tasting with my whole body
Slowly I've forgotten how
only love and fear can do it now](https://i0.wp.com/www.neilmeili.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Tastes-of-Childhood.jpg?resize=600%2C600)
HOW MANY PINS ON THE HEAD OF AN ANGEL
Twenty after midnight and up alone
sharing every Christmas past
with the angel of Austin present
alight on the well lit tree
Telling her of the first thin pine
strung with popcorn and candles clipped
back on the ranch before the power
Every crackle of every log
every crinkle of tissue torn
every child’s first Christmas
and every parent’s last
and every cousin and uncle and aunt
no longer as they say extant
Praying her to spread
her wings and wonder wide
that we may gather them all by dawn