Alpha-Bet

I write to tell my Christmas friends
the usual newsy update
breast cancer’s gone
I mean to say

but the letter R slips
downstream
a silver minnow

and leaves me with the growl of beast
that paces beneath my startled pen
upon the page’s four-cornered cage

beast
rattles the door and threatens the hinges
until the letter S shakes loose
by pounding beat of quaking heart

when all at once
a feather sigh of A floats down
an ah of breath released

deep in winter’s throat
a sudden filling
a flutter of light
my body thrums with choirs of joy