I wonder if the Nobel Prize judges feel remorse
when they receive a beautifully wrapped gift.

The merry soul who invented wrapping paper
was snubbed, despite giving the world
five seconds of wonder,

five seconds of joyful anticipation,
five seconds of childlike curiosity
five times five seconds cursing
a box within a box nesting in a third.

If not invented, how did this start?
Did Guinevere thank Lancelot with a poem
wrapped in fox fur and pine cones?

We’re not sure, yet we’re happy cats rejected
this custom, never giving us their dead
prey wrapped in colorful yarn.

Let's be meticulous in our wrapping,
generous in our ribbons and bows, and
raise a toast to the mirthful inventor

who inspires us to wrap a gift card
inside a used flatscreen TV box.