Astonishment
“Mary, Mary quite contrary
How does your garden grow”
Seraphim devolve right out of time
Striking fear in every child who understands cleanliness
is a sham
Innate cruelty flows through a child’s bloodstream
Passed down like a generational heirloom
Child meditates and soon enough the invisibles
materialize before her eyes
Child shakes her rattle
Plays with lettered cubes
“Ah!” she says out loud
Identifies with her voice for the first time
Same experience as a newborn python
who realizes it can slither
far enough
to sink its venom
into a sapling’s stem
yum-yum