Agree with me the rumble of a subway coming in
can be a baby, and the first note in the hush
of a concert hall, the bright name of a baby.
Walking to the bathroom at night, seeing
floorboards rise, this, of course, is a baby, and the sound
of pool balls breaking up pool balls? Like locks down the hall
clicking, one after another, into place? Baby, baby. Babies themselves
are not babies, not their carriages, their clinging
infant fingers, but that they often surface,
creaturely, into my dreams? Four horses gathered
in a window and then, on the counter, a sudden baby?
It’s true. Just this morning, walking with Nell, we saw a horse
standing in a pasture, flicking away flies. I clucked, clucked,
held out my hand and I called here, Baby.
Kate Northrop's recent poetry collections are Homewrecker (New Letters vol. 88, 2022) and cuntstruck (C & R Press, 2017). Northrop teaches at the University of Wyoming. Currently she is learning to embroider.
11/8 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Ruby Hansen Murray / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
11/8 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Ruby Hansen Murray and local poet Judy Ireland / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free
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I love this delightful poem, which is very apropos right now. I just became a grandmother for the first time. And I identify!