Christmas makes me realize how greatly things do change

Friends lose touch, people age, and family moves away

But it is what had stayed the same that gives me the most tears

For I've had the same Christmas cake for almost thirty years



Granny made it back in sixty-eight and gave it to my mom

Who gave it to her uncle who gave it to her son

Who then gave it to me and that is where it stuck

For I was only three months old and clearly out of luck



Each Christmas of my childhood that fruit-brick would return

My mom would place it on a plate and tell me I must learn

That it is rude to get a gift and not put it to use

And every year I'd take a bite and chip another tooth



After fifteen years of misery I'd had all I could take (All I could take)

That summer I went camping and dropped it in the lake (In the lake)

I thought that I was rid of it, but on Christmas eve (Christmas eve)

There it was