Our December Poem of the Month comes from Grace Wilentz’s recently published debut collection, The Limit of Light.
Partridge Wrapping Paper
My parents wrapped nearly every gift
they gave each other in leftover paper
for parcelling books. Brown paper
with a repeating pattern of partridges
each in profile with one paisley wing —
were they kissing or did they face away?
One winter my father
gave my mother a lamp she liked.
The base was white porcelain
and the bulb lit up the soft fibres
and orange flower petals
pressed within its shade.
A small rectangle of that book paper,
with its indigo and green
forever partridges, folded in half,
taped to the box instead of a card
and, inside, in my father’s neat capitals
— YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE.
by Grace Wilentz
from The Limit of Light (October 2020)
