Carly

Carly is my niece
My great, great niece
To be precise
She is in the third grade
And she said that she really likes her teacher this year
For Christmas, I bought her
A fire engine red sweater
Two sizes too big
As it turned out
Much to my embarrassment
And chagrin
But much to her delight
For fire engine red is her color you see
Carly’s mother Claire called me
And put Carly on the phone
Claire is named for my mother Clara
Carly said that she wanted
To thank me for her gift
And to wish me a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
And the same to you honey I said
Thank you so much for calling me
It means so very much to me
To hear your voice and to hear you smile
That smile means everything to me you know
After such a long period of silence
Not since last Easter
Instantly our bonds were renewed
As our familial blood ties
Reasserted themselves
Blood is thicker than water they say
And they are right to say it
Today I purchased a lottery ticket
Hoping to hit the mega millions jackpot
A million to one shot to be sure
But that one phone call from Carly
Was worth a king’s ransom in gold
Can’t hardly wait to see you again Uncle Jack
She said handing the phone back to her mother
Me too I said and I really meant it
And I am pretty sure she did too
And that was good enough for me.

Jack H. Markowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2010