Joy is not made to be a crumb.
—Mary Oliver

Joy is the whole cookie,
fat with chocolate chips or
smooth as shortbread. In fact,
the more crumbs you mash
onto a finger and apply to your
tongue, the sweeter the joy.

No one tells you this;
it’s something you must learn
yourself. But this is why we fall
into doughy goodness, mad for
the cookies that call to us:

snickerdoodles, gingersnaps,
biscotti and peanut butter,
oatmeal (with or without raisins),
those with gluten or without,
macadamia nut, molasses,
macaroon, the thumbprints
with their divine jelly wells,
holiday spritz, the snowball,
lebkuchen, the gingerbread—

all cookies cut out or dropped,
made of thousands of crumbs
of delight mixed with love,
baked into pure bliss.

Gleefully gobble those
morsels—don’t miss a one.
Let all that joy dribble
onto your grinning face.