by Marissa Glover fraidy cat, fraidy cat who’s been running home to mommy who’s been running fraidy, fraidy cat simon says you’ve been crying, simon says are those tears, cry baby baby, baby nanny nanny boo boo who’s been running who ring around the rosy pockets full of poesy stand still while we run Read More
Tag: children
Descend
“There, seeker,” intoned the elder pachyderm. “In that grove you will find the entrance to the underworld.” Abhita swallowed once and clutched her sitar. “Very well, I am ready. Lead on.” “No, I go no further,” the tusk-less male replied. “Elephants never descend into the shadows, whether for dream-jewel or life-treasure. Pursue your dead child on your own.” Abhita strummed Read More
Meditations
On the amount of prayer needed to maintain a pregnancy by Elisabeth Horan I never got down on my knees Begged forgiveness for my sin Never held the carpet close – Its fibers touching my chin. I should have begged specifically: God, let me keep this one inside Allow it haven in my womb – Not leave it for a Read More
Bad Neighbors
by Elisabeth Horan Frost might think we have forgotten how it is to mend a wall. Good neighbors we are not. What once was rolling acres of deforested masterpieces, framed by such precise and plaintive cairns – rolled by hand of man or brutish ox to the edges of the gently wooded glens – To keep the sheep so neatly grazing Read More
The Afternoon of Your Cremation
by Leah Mueller Strip from bone and evaporate to wherever the dried blood goes. Memories seethe: your abrupt assault, your terrified love. Bulbous digits, teeth in a sawdust box embossed with an Indian’s head. Wishbone and sage. You always said I talked too much, though my voice never reached very far. I pretend you were kind, pretend you wanted our Read More
Your Arms Close Around Me
by J. Bradley Mitch asks mom what animal she’d want to be and I punch him in the arm for asking. The last thing mom needs right now is to think about being in a body other than her own. Mom answers though by shifting her body into a lime green raccoon. Why a raccoon, I ask. On our honeymoon, Read More
Outwit
Ephsta had just reached the tree line when her walkie-talkie crackled. “Everybody in position?” asked the blue team leader. Ephsta joined the series of affirmative sound-offs. “Great. Now remember,” the leader continued, “we’re at the boundary of the red base. So they could be anywhere from here on in.” Ephsta tensed and immediately perked up her flopping ears. “And most importantly, we Read More
Elephants Never Neglect, Reading
We present these trunk-to-tail pachyderms reading in gratitude for Neglect by Sam Rose. Check out this sample, in case we’ve not yet convinced you to read the full poem: tail to tail, wrapping their heads around each other’s murmurings, they catch the tail end of every tale told end to end like elephant strings – Neglect by Sam Rose And stay Read More
We present these trunk-to-tail pachyderms reading in gratitude for Neglect by Sam Rose. Check out this sample, in case we’ve not yet convinced you to read the full poem:
tail to tail, wrapping their heads
around each other’s murmurings,
they catch the tail end of every tale told
end to end like elephant strings – Neglect by Sam Rose
And stay tuned for Things Elephants Never Neglect, coming soon.
Neglect
by Sam Rose Wrapping trunks around tails, calves follow their mothers calf to calf, toe to toe keeping up or gently towed tail to tail, wrapping their heads around each other’s murmurings, they catch the tail end of every tale told end to end like elephant strings tales unfold, friend to friend an elephant has every intent to listen because Read More
For the Love of Lice
by Amy Alexander When it comes to terrible things that adults imagine happening to children – drownings, kidnappings, being burnt on stoves, toppling headlong into Rubbermaid tubs and not being able to escape, crashing into semis in forward-facing, failing child seats, falling off of cliffs at The Grand Canyon, being sucked into the ocean by riptides, placing dry cleaning bags Read More