On Gifts

On my sill two apples and a pale blue leaf floated on a blue-black sky—the leaf floated all the way here from California, thanks to the generosity of artist Kris Cahill.

http://www.kriscahill.com/kriscahill.com/Home.html

Two days from now my son will be a high school graduate. Family comes in, reservations are made, but still, and yet: I can't imagine what I might give my son that could speak of all he's always and forever given me. That could reflect or honor it. Calm, and how often I've needed his brand of calm. Wisdom, because his comes strictly undiluted from the heart.

No word big enough.

No poem.

Just to be here in the afternoon, when he saunters into my office, slides into the Corbusier chair, fits the back of his head into his fingers (long fingers), and says, Hey, you have time to talk? Just to be here, for whatever time is left. That's all.