nine

For Poetry Thursday, for whom we were asked to write a poem using a cliché. I wondered whether I wanted "babies change your life" or "they grow up so fast"; both are apt, and I've never heard either said better. I chose, instead, "just yesterday it seems."


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nine

beneath the dead dogwood
in pieces now from her dad’s
hand saw and a few long days
nestled in the tree’s crotches
sits my daughter’s desk
crooked, sticker covered
marker scribbled
well used.
the all-night rain left a gloss
a puddle in the pencil rest
and a sad sheen all over.
only yesterday it seems
she sat on its bench
and drew our family portrait
us three and two dogs
in front of the house
eggs for hands and feet
a jagged sun smiling upon us.
upstairs a work station
now dominates the room.
we used to joke
about the heavy books
we’d tie to her head
to keep her from growing up.
but our children rocket
through our lives
and one day you find them
too long for your lap
and the next
they are a contrail
and all you have left
of that blur of childhood
is a portrait in pencil
and the warped top
of a sticker-covered desk.