Mother's Day

Today a package of chocolates arrived

Twelve truffles extravagantly wrapped

in a gold foil box with an ice pack to keep the contents from melting in the early May sunshine.

Before anyone could taste their sweetness

My children, seeing the box

assumed it was a treasure sent from

a grandparent, uncle, friend

They tore it open

marveled at the hand-painted chocolates

And each laid claim.

I wanted to gather them up

children and chocolates

and make them last

preserve them

from the terrible realization

that they are not the centers of the universe

that not every box

that arrives in the post

will be for them to open.