The Puzzled Box
The box contains all that exists,
including the fact that there is no box.
You gave me a box, and I jumped in.
Fairy dust and peacock feathers, mystical
dreams all swirled together, just inside the tiny box.
The box rests somewhere between my collarbones.
In it is the laughter of my children
and the lid is my grandmother’s hands.
A life shared and spent on a gift for
the future promised. A cat, perhaps,
at some point in its many-spiraled life.
My box is next to his! Wait! Wait! Don’t
close the lid! I open the big box
with my strong Wonder Women hands. Goodies
for the foodies: Milky Ways, tacos, sanitizing wipes
and toilet paper. Yay! Better than Christmas…
box of 24 rolls of TP, gross
of hand sanitizers and 4 happy
face masks. My cat Princess Tabitha
opens the large cardboard box with her
magical claws and inside she finds
15 pounds of chicken-flavored cat food!
Original prompt: What is in the box? What is the box?
by Nan Friedley, Natalie Champion, Sherre Vernon, Shali Nicholas, Dar Stone, Douglas McCulloh, Gudelia Vaden, Debby Johnson, James Luna, Cindi Neisinger, Cati Porter
Inlandia: A Literary Journey 