December 24, 2013

for you and you alone

This is not for clever wrapping or the taut loops of a perfect bow.

Not the finishing touch on the puppy pile of boxes under a lit-up tree.

This is not the final forage down the retail corridors, sweating inside a too-

warm coat. Not the extravagance of an overnight shipping fee

to make sure it gets there in time. I know one more pressurized present

will have you running for the hills. So here. Take this roughed-out gap

between urgencies to wreak a small havoc of silence. Find the stolen rift

of minutes where no stove-pot needs stirring, when you can simply…stop.

This is for you and you alone, this brief shard in the day stripped of tape and string,

where your heart – that loyal muscle – finds a gift in everything.