Autumn Lament

I want to crawl back into my daughter’s bed
Past stars, dark, and ephemeral light,
Back into the moments with the Stinky Cheese Man
And laugh at the words, the pictures.

There with her witch-broom hair tickling my face on the pillow
The warmth of her against me, her little stuffed dog. I
want to be cramped into the space of her kicking
Feel her foot stretched into my ribs, where we are safe.
My bean pole, my mermaid’s purse-
Shark of my waters, laughing into sleep.

Long hours away correcting the
words of others who do not speak the language of bears.
To crawl back through pastel, and swaddling,
into the rhythm of beat and breath-
9/23