Here comes another month. Holidays and Christmas trees and drives down Ward Parkway with the fountains iced over. Kansas City becomes a different kind of city in December. Darkness comes early. And the people in this town focus on the good parts, forgetting about the long winter ahead.
They pack inside basketball gyms across the metro, in Columbia and Lawrence, too… the sound of squeaking shoes and whistles providing a distraction from the changes going on outside. They converge on Crown Center, and the Plaza, and in the places in between. And they stay home when the snow reaches their ankles.
It’s December in Kansas City, and now that it’s here, here’s a six-haiku ode to another year in the greatest cowtown in the world.
***
Musty gyms. Popcorn.
Pep bands blasting out fight songs
High school basketball
***
Hear Mariah Carey
Walk through the stolid aisles
The curse of shopping
***
G-chat. Facebook. Click.
Time for looking up old friends
Frosty nostalgia
***
Dark beer and eggnog
Sipping by the brick fireplace
Feeling full and warm
***
Glowing plaza lights
Westport under drifts of snow
A round at Hoopers
***
Month of December
Slow, cold fade to the finish
Time to start over
The Brew House 