.
Sweet Pea
.
Child born early
cusping April
.
who struggled pale blue face
to be born
.
he shoots up
green through sand
.
tender petals curling
back to find their edges
.
my daughter
who is now my son
.
is learning how
to drive
.
wraps tendrils
around the wheel
.
climbs from back seat
up front
.
delicate face bright
and forward
.
Jonie McIntire is author of chapbooks Semidomesticated (Red Flag Poetry, 2021), Beyond the Sidewalk (Nightballet Press, 2017) and Not All Who Are Lost Wander (Finishing Line Press, 2016). She hosts a popular monthly poetry reading series called Uncloistered Poetry, which brings poets in from around the country. She has received multiple Accelerator Grants from the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo. Learn more about her at https://www.joniemcintire.net
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North of Oxford 