December Blog 2023

The Gift 

You’re outside the Post Office,

in an endless queue of tinsel

clad punters, all fake jingle 

and ho ho ho, when your eyes 

are drawn to a leafless tree,

its scrawled branches 

 

black against the grey,

where cradled in its crown 

is neither star, nor angel,  

but a tiny moss-woven nest, 

finely stitched with cobweb  

and spangled with rain. 

 

A fragile, unknown tree,

a tiny, absent bird, a nest 

so high, you can only 

guess the precious within.   

As light fledges the leaden 

sky, you search in vain 

 

for a bright wing, a sign, 

a guiding star, to carry

the unknown with you.  

Hold it close for a day, 

a week, to unwrap 

on Christmas morning.