Poem-a-Day

Poem-a-day

I am a child
of wonder again and
rain tells me to watch
for snails and slugs.

I gather dirt, sand, and sticks
for the terrarium
where I make a safe home
away from footsteps, fast cars, and ditch water.

I don’t want them to die
so I make them
a space for living.

I ask my ma to buy lettuce
because in the book I got from the library
I learned they will eat lettuce.

I am
greedy to learn
what keeps everything alive.

Their spiral shapes leave shiny trails behind.
I imagine I am a snail leaving
magic everywhere I go.

Marlanda Dekine

Previous Poems

Title	Author	Date
Still Life: From the Notebook of Ambrose Bierce, 1862	R. T. Smith
A History of Vietnam & Central America as Seen in the Paintings of Leon Golub, Musée des beaux arts, Montréal, 1985	Erín Moure
Song, by the same	Stacy Doris
Inscription for the Ceiling of a Bedroom	Dorothy Parker
The Hour and What Is Dead	Li-Young Lee
Those lips that Love’s own hand did make (Sonnet 145)	William Shakespeare
from obedience [the clock is on time]	kari edwards
What Her Father Said	Tony Barnstone
Red-Legged Kittiwake	Emily Wilson
A Financial Planner Asks About My Goals, or Golden Shovel with Cardi B’s “Money”	Kemi Alabi

Title

Author

Date