Carrying Small, Blue Stones

Winter storming outside: Cold. Wet. In the shallow canal beside the house, two marsh cranes bicker, rising up against each other, tail feathers and arched wings spread full span, beaks thrust against the other, feathered chest against chest.

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Image from: smithsonianmag.com Photo by Larry Moskovitz, Fallbrook, CA

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Draft of Unfinished Poem || Notes
from school he comes home

carrying small, blue stones
         words mislaid by other children
         other children’s sticks and stones
         in his small pockets

the beginnings of a phrase

cells of protein on his sleeve
later develop into raging fever at midnight

metaphors for death/violence
language of hand-held anger
         the divorced father of three

fragmented discussions
         creatures, stuff of nightmares/dreams

pink eye • fifth disease (rash) • runny nose • virus
human scars

symptoms of a carrier’s malnutrition

stimuli • overdosed on sugar

without a coat

rhyming song • lyrics embedded in the ear/head

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