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
Pine	Susan Stewart
Robin Hood’s Barn (audio only)	John Ashbery
Transfiguration (audio only)	Mark Jarman
See How the Roses Burn!	Hafez
Chanukah Dreams	Judith Ish-Kishor
From “Twasinta’s Seminoles” (Canto IV, IX)	Albery Allson Whitman
Enough	Andru Defeye
In the great snowfall before the bomb	Lorine Niedecker
The Sicilian’s Tale; The Bell of Atri	Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Visit from Mars	Gerald Stern

Title

Author

Date

Pine

Hafez