child mind
poetry by
Marie Ostendorf-LeClair
child mind
I.
I believed in love
at sight
when I saw
small hearts of a blossom
wrapped in
honeybees and pollen
picked clovers, ground
their luck into stone
listen to their fluids
waltz this in my ear:
your legs
will feel
lightweight
in soil
II.
constellations collect
small pockets
of daylight in
midnight bears
pick starberries
eat light sweetness
dripping in
glittered teeth
Vulpecula’s jaw
holds the neck
of a small,
diamond goose
I wonder, will she
eat me too?
III.
I keep my feet under
blankets to keep away
moss that grows
in my heels
pray our father
to a god
I cannot know
instead, praise holy
thy flowered
thighs find divinity
in personification
of small growths
succulents on
windowsills
IV.
I found a maple
leaf in my jaw
stuck it in
my ribcage
to grow
a tree in
my lungs,
find more
oxygen
send it to my brain
inhale
breathe
exhale
sore sticky branches
Marie Ostendorf-LeClair
Marie Ostendorf-LeClair is a nonbinary poet who focuses on nostalgia and trauma in themes and forms. She is a former Design Editor of Franklin College's campus literary journal, Apogee, as well as being published in the journal the past four issues. Twitter handle is @goghtothegrave. Pronouns are she/they.