Newsletter sign up

Be the first to know when new American Life in Poetry columns are live.

Column 585

Delivered

Intro by Ted Kooser
06.05.2016

The greet­ing card com­pa­nies are still mak­ing mon­ey, though the inven­tive online cards” are gain­ing ground. Here’s a poem about pen and ink greet­ing cards, by Cyn­thia Ven­tresca, who lives in Delaware.

Delivered

She lived there for years in a
small space in a high rise that saw
her winter years dawn. When the past
became larger than her present,
she would call and thank us for cards
we gave her when we were small;
for Christmas, Mother's Day, her birthday,
our devotion scrawled amidst depictions
of crooked hearts and lopsided lilies.

She would write out new ones,
and we found them everywhere—unsent;
in perfect cursive she wished us joy,
chains of x's and o's circling her signature.
And when her time alone was over,
the space emptied of all but sunshine, dust,
and a cross nailed above her door,
those cards held for us a bitter peace;
they had finally been delivered.
 

Share this column

Disclaimer

We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2015 by Cynthia A. Ventresca, “Delivered,” (Third Wednesday, Vol. VIII, No. 4, 2015). Poem reprinted by permission of Cynthia A. Ventresca and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.

Column 584