My poem, I LOOKED FOR HIM EVERYWHERE was just published in Willow Review (4/25)
Just published in WILLOW REVIEW:
I Looked for him Everywhere
On Old Pond Road where skate bugs skated
and wriggling tadpoles whipped their tails
like sperm rushing up a fallopian tube,
my son, at four, was nowhere to be found.
On my knees, I searched the edge of the pond
for a glimpse of his blond curls, his dimpled fists.
I shouted his name. Sparrows took flight.
Where are you? I cried.
Then I saw him, falling like Icarus
from the topmost branch of a sugar maple tree.
I dashed, my arms a cradle as if I could catch him,
as if the law of gravity would stop for him, for me.
He fell, face-down in a swath of unmown grass
I ran my hands over his small back, his shoulders
poking out like the sprouts of angel wings.
I checked his limbs. No blood. No breaks.
I turned him over, pulled up his grass-stained shirt.
I lifted his eyelids. His brown eyes
looked back at me. Mom,he said.
Just that.
April 27, 2025 @ 2:27 pm
A cinematic and touching poem!
Nancy Rubin Stuart