The Gift
Sara gave me a beautiful gift,
a bowl, maybe a type of basket,
dark wood, the upper part
seemed braided, or had a braid design.
The lid was topped by a frog.
From Indonesia?
In my thank you note I told her
I would be very sensitive
as to what I placed in her gift.
On the outside back of the envelope
I printed, in quotation marks:
"a pigeon feather, a marble."
Michael Wurster has lived in Pittsburgh since 1964 and is a founding member of Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange. He has received a Shaded Room Magazine Pittsburgh Award, the 1980 COSMEP Conference MVP Award, a Harry Schwalb Excellence in the Arts Award from Pittsburgh Magazine, and a Petracca Family Award from Philadelphia Poets. In 2015, a sandwich was named for him by Pittsburgh Steak Co. His books include The Snake Charmer's Daughter, and The British Detective. He has co-edited, with Judith Robinson, the anthologies Along These Rivers: Poetry & Photography from Pittsburgh and The Brentwood Anthology, a collection of poems by members of the Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange open workshop.