"Found, Bag of
Xmas Presents."

The heading is printed in bold font
in the Found Column
of the major city’s newspaper
five days after Christmas.

The details provided are spare -
"on the 417 westbound
in the Kanata area
on Christmas Day."

The notice may have run a few days now
perhaps the owners have claimed
their treasures, maybe even rewarded
their roadway angel.

But it’s intriguing, isn’t it?

Had a merry but tired family
distracted by the hectic pace
of the holiday
placed their large loot bag
on their car roof
and forgotten, as they drove away
over the icy Ottawa-area roads?

One can imagine the arguments
after such a realization.

Or a worse scenario -
was there a dispute, between a couple
resulting in one of them, hostilely
tossing the other’s stash
onto the edge of the freeway?

What might make up the missing gifts?
New socks and undie,
a Monopoly game, a third toolbox,
heavily redundant?

Had the children quarreled so
in the back seat of the family S.U.V.
so that after three warnings,
the father or mother
chucked the presents
they’d just received at Grandma’s?

I suppose we’ll never know
the origin or conclusion
of the story

but the mystery wasn’t lost
on this browser of the Classifieds.

01/01/2005