By: Jim Bates

A stuffed animal?
No not to the young boy
More than a Christmas gift
She was soft oh so soft
Fluffy and white
Cuddly secure
He called her Snowflake.

Sick in the hospital
Bright lights glaring
Monitors beeping
She kept him company
Thankfully
Unrelentingly loneliness
Deepest darkest night
Long hours stretching endlessly to dawn
Snowflake lay in his arms
Never leaving him
Always there
When he needed her most
Magically purring
Even after he got home
Amid all the anger
And the fighting and the arguing
Especially even then.

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Jim lives in a small town west of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He loves to write! His stories and poems have appeared in over four hundred online and print publications. He is the author of eight collections of short stories, one novel, one novella, one collection of haiku poems, and one collection of poetry. Check out his blog at: www.theviewfromlonglake.wordpress.com.