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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

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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. 

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