[the Writing of Kuypers]
You see, it was Christmas time,
Now, I know he was doing something nice for me,
U.S. Government Copyright © 2004
[JanetKuypers.com][Bio][Poems][Prose] ........
Dreams 03/21/06
I was told this morning that you can explain your dreams
by what you lived through the night before.
And I did everything exactly the same last night,
nothing was different, and that’s what scares me.
and we had people over,
and my husband was doing something
and told me that I could open my presents,
even though he was doing something else,
I don’t know, maybe taking care of guests,
maybe getting food for people, I don’t know.
But he edged the wrapped boxes toward me
before he turned away,
so I started unwrapping the first box,
but stopped before it was completely unwrapped,
since he wasn’t even there.
But I could see from the half-torn wrapping paper
that he bought me a Christmas ornament,
it was a round glass ball, which is nice,
but I could see that it had some sort of scene
painted in many colors all along it,
and it looked like you could see past
some of the paint on the ornament
to see some ornate gold contraption
hanging inside the ornament.
This thing didn’t match the style of anything we had,
so I tried to ask him,
“Do you want me to wait to open these?”
and he said no, go ahead,
so no one watched me
as I finished opening this ornament.
I opened the second box,
and it had chains of large silk spun beads in it
I think, and they were red, green and gold.
All I could think is that I got Mardi Gras beads
when my husband saw which box I opened and
pointed out that the beads were red and green
you know, for Christmas.
I had no idea why he got me these
Christmas-colored Mardi Gras beads,
but I still had one present left to open,
while my husband was still doing something else.
So I unwrapped the last box,
to see what looked like an old doll,
you know, like an antique doll,
even though it looked perfectly new.
The doll had gold spiral locks for hair,
and her clothes were red, maybe velvet-like,
and I believe there was lace around her neck.
I had no idea what to think of this;
I didn’t know if this was a doll his mother had
and he was giving me an heirloom,
of if there was no value to this
and he mistakenly thought
I’d actually want something like this.
I think he turned and saw that I opened the doll,
and I think he told me that he thought I’d like it.
and it was nice that he thought to buy me something,
but I was left getting presents I didn’t want,
that I had to open by myself, from someone
who apparently didn’t know me at all.
Copyright © 2006 Janet Kuypers.
Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers
on all art and all writings on this site completed
before 6/6/04. All rights reserved. No material
may be reprinted without express permission.
