I have updated ‘flat Christmas moment‘ with two short additional lines. When I wrote the poem, at the very moment of completing the last line, the door did open and my parents returned from their walk in the woods.  I hummed and ha’ed about leaving the moment adrift, or bringing it to the same halt as experienced by the poet.  On balance I think the change of pace of the return of people adds an element of wry humour and a greater sense of reality. After all, the poem is about a moment, not life drifting on forever.

But I am open to new thinking…