Sunday, July 9, 2023

Return, draft no. 2

This poem is for my husband.

I don’t know if we have ever

given each other gifts,

ever given each other gifts

that meet the other’s need

as much as we’d hoped.

I don’t know if I will ever know the very gift

he wants,

or be able to give it, if I did.

But I want to know.

I want to be able to give him that.

If I could, if that gift was mine to give.

And this year that wanting is enough.

So when he gives me the yellow dress

that I will never wear

and he laughs because he knows

I am going to return it,

he will know that I have understood

and not begrudged his gift.


If I could see inside his heart,

I believe there is a place that he

wants to give me a gift I want,

and this Christmas that will be enough.


I don’t think there is any better gift than

contentment.

It is something

that we can even give ourselves

when we return

to God.