✨ [for christmas i gave]

they held me ...

for Christmas I gave
everyone in my family
a white tea light

to remember the time
they held me while I
was shaking and singing
and maybe dying

to honor the vigil of
space they created while
I traveled the universe
and came back to myself

to laugh at how many
candles I lit, and how they
hid the matches

—Juniper Klatt

“[for Christmas I gave]” is taken from I was raised in a house of water. Copyright © 2019 by Juniper Klatt. Used by permission of Fernwood Press. All rights reserved. www.fernwoodpress.com. Photo by Max Beck, via Unsplash.