Surplus

"If we never have enough love, we have more than most."
                                ~ Kelli Russell Agodon

You were not the child scanning the crowd
in the social hall for the face of the parent
who never appeared at awards programs. You 
never ate the burnt crust at the bottom 
of the rice pot and pretended it was a prized 
delicacy. You didn't have to choose between two 
pairs of shoes and be told the difficulty 
means you get to have both. Who doesn't want 
the new sheets, the freshly baked loaf, 
the first glistening layer of honey 
in the jar? You refused to listen to the owl
hooting no no no through the night. You 
dipped your fingers in sugar water and wrote 
your name on the garden wall so ants and
hummingbirds would always know the way home.