Children practice first person
by choosing

between red and green,
dog and cat.

Moment to moment—

I thought if I held the gap open
———————————–—long enough

I could see what else

“I’m a moth
that can turn into a bat,”

she said, flapping her wings.

 

 

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Rae Armantrout’s most recent poetry collection is Finalists (Wesleyan). Her book Versed won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. She is the current judge of the Yale Younger Poets Award.

 

 

 

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash