(Photo by Tony Susi)

• Side A: Bitter Perfume (by Matt Lally)

  In 2003, I sent copies of "Bitter Perfume" to about 20 people as my Christmas card to them. I wrote it very quickly, almost in one sitting, and it's probably the only time I've ever shared a story without having first self-edited it over the course of several months. Which is probably just as well — as I read it again now, I wonder, had I been given time to think about it, if I would have sent it out at all.

  People seemed to like it, though, and since I have no plans to sell it anywhere, I wanted to publish it here without any edits. I almost succeeded — I made about five minor edits, but I only changed the things that were really, really bugging me. I didn't change anything significant, as much as I wanted to.

• Side B: Noël: Christmas Eve 1913 (by Robert Bridges)

  "Noël: Christmas Eve 1913" was written by Robert Bridges, former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, during the first year of his appointment to that post. Years later, Lee Holdridge put the poem to music, shortening it and rearranging some of the words to fit his melody, performed over the years by John Denver. The song is included on Denver's Christmas album with The Muppets, A Christmas Together, which is how I first heard it.

  The version included on MattLally.com is an abridged version of Mr. Bridges's original poem. (I ommitted the six lines about "the towers that crown England so fair" because I am *not* Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.)