A Star
The ornaments did not
come with hooks.
So we use paper clips.
“Open the fatter side up just enough,”
Lisa says, “so it’s able
to fit on the branch.”
Our son, Eliot, 7, opens the clips
one by one and lines them up
and hangs them. He lands
his plastic toy dragon on top
the tree. Lisa says, “We really
do need to get a star.”
Kevin Rabas co-directs the creative writing program at Emporia State University and edits Flint Hills Review. His stories and poems have been published in Nimrod, Cottonwood, Event, and elsewhere. He has three books: Bird’s Horn, Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano, a Kansas Notable Book and Nelson Poetry Book Award winner, and Spider Face: stories.
