The Child Who… by Maria Keane

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The Child Who…

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I am the child who smells earth after rain,

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who watches trails of ants that go nowhere,

who plucks the air just after

the monarch leaves its milkweed.

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Who kneels in moist wells

of fern below

a ceiling of leaves

beneath a bruising sky.

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Tangled in a thin layer of dust

I watch the falcon glide

above the mottled hologram of earth.

I dig small hollows in the shadow of the oak

that cover the limp green garden snake.

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The Child Who…

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I am at the velvet edge of exploration.

I listen to beats beneath the earth

separating groves of blood roses.

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My garden dance

becomes redundant.

I look beyond a patch of grass with stringy roots.

where uncertainties never pierce the spine.

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The sun is winking between the clouds.

I shrug off origami cranes attempting flight.

                                          Thin promises  of paper,  my blueprint.

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Maria Keane, visual artist and published poet, served as Professor of Fine Arts at Wilmington University, New Castle Delaware from 1984-2009.  Her book of poetry, Being There, is being published in October, 2018 by Page Publishing, N.Y.  She was awarded a Professional Fellowship in Works on Paper in 1997.)

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