The Gift

I agree with Mary Lee — they’re all quite powerful and I can see them in a book. This one, only 6 lines, speaks volumes.

This one is heartbreaking. I found myself wanting to know whether it was a forced birthday gift, and why $7 (was that all he had in his tired wallet? Was that your age — a dollar per year), and what you did with it — whether you spent it or kept those dollars for a long time, knowing that they’d come from his wallet, knowing that you had a small piece of him, or whether you bought something you wanted and thought of him whenever you saw that purchase.

I, too, hope there is healing in the poems you’ve written.

tanita says 🙂

Oh, Susan.
I very much remember a blouse in second grade, bought from a thrift store – a gift which had more magnitude than perhaps it should have.

…Seven whole dollars.
I wonder what you spent it on.