I might bemoan
the babe-obscuring frenzy
of the mall at Christmastime:

    The perfect gift!
    The ultimate gift!
    The gift they really want!

Gift craving,
    gift hawking,
gift buying,
    gift wrapping,
gift giving,
    gift returning…

I feel gift pressure;
I suffer from gift anxiety,
    gift envy.

Stop the gifting madness!

But then, oh yes,
I remember:
Giving and receiving
are, after all,
central to the story.

It all started with a gift.
____

"Allow me to give you this,"
I say.
"It's a forlorn, faint echo
of an unfathomable grace,
lunatic and loving."

I hand you the package,
which you open.

"I know it looks like a scarf,
but really,
it's a strip of the swaddle
that cradled the child."

Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.