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Contents | April 2004

More on poetry from The Atlantic Monthly.


The Atlantic Monthly | April 2004
 
Childhood

by Debra Bruce
 
.....
 
audioear pictureHear the author read this poem (in RealAudio)


Exiled once, allowed back in
to guide you through,
I didn't know my time was up.
But by the river, in snapping grass,
still in the habit of noticing,
crouching with you at a leaf or wing,
I spotted caterpillar frass
speckling milkweed as he feasted,
getting ready to split, released
from a too tight self. In just a week
he'd grow a better, brasher skin.
Exiled once, allowed back in,
I leaned down in the snapping grass,
but stopped at the thud of your new voice:
Come on. Big deal. So what.


What do you think? Discuss this article in Post & Riposte.


Debra Bruce teaches at Northeastern Illinois University. Her most recent collection is What Wind Will Do (1997).

Copyright © 2004 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
The Atlantic Monthly; April 2004; Childhood; Volume 293, No. 3; 80.


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