chicken scratchings...

what is it about the
lure and promise
of a
real
letter...
not an email,
not a phone call,
not a message,
not even a face-to-face conversation
but the physical
hold- in-your- hand
anticipation- of- the- mailman
kind of letter...
the color of the envelope
the texture of the paper
the sometimes indeciperable chicken scratchings...
the knowing that someone
cared enough
to go to that trouble
to write to you
and mail it even...

and the hidden surprise sometimes
of a packet of sesame street stickers
or a cd of music that you don't already know...
sigh...
i
love
letters...

and i am as good of a giver
as i am a receiver...
there is something about writing
that pries open that
habitually reserved
part of me
and exposes it a bit...

for what it is.