The gift.

Merry Christmas!

***

Once, it mattered.

To be the ever so quiet one,

to always be the only one left alone,

to be piteously left out, to be left behind,

to be affably forgotten, to be unnoticed,

to be tyrannically ignored, to be pushed aside.

Garden with an oak tree.

She always dreams of a flower bed with

millions of delectable flowers -

enchanting daisies, delicate dandelions,

engaging tulips, lovely buttercups, graceful roses

and exquisite snowdrops.

Underneath the oak tree at the edge of the garden

lies a gift.

The Christmas present is gift-wrapped in satiny pink paper and

tied with a velvet ribbon.

Again, the unaccompanied, pink parcel is left by itself

under the oak tree this Christmas.

Santa deems it as a gift too precious and

there is yet no one who deserves to unwrap and unravel

the exceptionally unique parcel.

She'd love to think of herself as that,

as the gift.