Gift Exchange

Everything has changed
Since these boxes
Last closed
Ornaments
Lights
Bows and ribbons
Seven rolls of
Picturesque snowman scenes
And a nativity set
I put up with
Year after year

Difficult to even touch
These artifacts
Let alone separate them
Into two distinct piles
A holiday time bomb
Left for me

Sometimes think
I got out a little easy
And maybe I did
But at least
She won’t have to
Leave her memories
On the doorstep
Of an apartment
She has never seen
Where the silent cries
Of a cat behind glass
And familiar wind chimes
Crash in on her