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William Matthews - Poem (The lump of coal my parents teased)
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The lump of coal my parents teased
I`d find in my Christmas stocking
turned out each year to be an orange,
for I was their sunshine.

Now I have one C. gave me,
a dense node of sleeping fire.
I keep it where I read and write.
"You`re on chummy terms with dread,"

it reminds me. "You kiss ambivalence
on both cheeks. But if you close your
heart to me ever I`ll wreathe you in flames
and convert you to energy."

I don`t know what C. meant me to mind
by her gift, but the sun returns
unbidden. Books get read and written.
My mother comes to visit. My father`s

dead. Love needs to be set alight
again and again, and in thanks
for tending it, will do its very
best not to consume us.


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