Christmas Present Poem by Eleanor Zuercher

The first, best, Christmas present
Was simply presence.
That moment of birth contained
Also death,
And anticipated something
More than death.

That present was not subject to time.
Instead of becoming
Past, then forgotten, discarded and lost,
It fell transcendent,
Into all sequential time,
Like a drop

Of iridescent dye in water.
That focused presence
Still irradiates our present.
So the last best
Gift we can present is simply
To be.

Now.