The Giving

When it was time for giving, they made gifts,
each to the other, of themselves. Naked
in their honesty, they wore no fancy clothes
to make them seem more than they were,
no suit of armour for their weaknesses,
protected only by each other’s hands.

Precious, in all their ordinariness,
beyond all other gifts they could bestow;
each one received the essence of the other,
knowing what they stood to lose. The giving
was itself a gift: showing that they knew
the hands to which they gave would keep them safe.