I am looking out the museum door at a bronze sculpture
of a mother & child and picnic tables empty in the cold.

Metal shines in rough streaks, weather-worn.  My breath
steams the glass and I raise a finger to clear a circle.

Here is an invitation to join me.  To touch the cold shoulder
of the mother, press our hands to the cheek of the child.

Because I want to share something with you.  A carol I have
written, perhaps, or make an exchange – my song for your poem.

We could meet there, lean into their silence, circle their stillness.

We will stand close as the sky opens, sprinkles snow over us.
A sweet gift we will no longer brush away.

Mary C. Rowin is a poet and textile artist. Recent poems have been published in Postcard Poems and Prose, Portage Magazine, The Avocet, Blue Heron and in The Best of Kindness, an anthology of the Origami Poems Project. Mary lives in Middleton, WI.