The Idea

‘And she felt that she had been given a present, wrapped up,
and told just to keep it, not to look at.’
-  from Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf


It can be that it comes to you
all wrapped up in itself
and you have to find a way
of unwrapping it
but without disturbing it too much,
so you hardly dare touch
the new-born creature
and take great care
to ensure
it does not fall onto the old stone floor
where it will surely shatter;

but aware of its presence
you must prepare yourself
to accept
that once unwrapped
and exposed to the world
something so undoubtedly
and astoundingly beautiful
might, in fact, not be
as precious, as wonderful
or as beautiful
as first imagined.