Aunt Mabel’s Present

Aunt Mabel’s Present  

By Sis Unsworth

Aunt Mabel had a present; she’d kept since she was small,

it never had been opened, and she stored it in the hall.

Why have you never opened it, I politely once did say,

And what she then did tell me, I’ve remembered to this day.

She said it was a gipsy who gave the gift to her,

Who said it was more valuable than frankincense and myrrh.

The gipsy said it was a gift to have when she was old,

And never open it before, she was severely told.

So there it stayed for many years, the gift out in the hall,

I’ll open it when I grow old, she said as I recall.

What could the present be that remained securely locked?

We always tried to get her to open up the box.

She developed quite a phobia, I frequently was told,

Once the gift was opened, it meant that she was old.

She said I will not open it, I am still in my prime,

As she cut her birthday cake when she was 89.

Aunt Mabel at last left the earth, when she was 93,

The gift was still unopened, as was bequeathed to me

”Open it when you are old,” those words I did recall,

I took the present home, and placed it in my hall,

Whatever was there in the box, at last, we will be told,

The gift I look at every day but, won’t open till I’m old.

 Copyright Sis Unsworth