Child, You Are a Story
Chanting melodies of holy water.
Each burbled gush a song bird
trickling your boy-throat.
Look up.
Blue-cheeked bee eaters
and willow warblers
drip sugar psalms.
White-winged snow finches
and meadow pipits
fly bliss-stung with your voice.
Ivory-throated dippers, song thrushes
and violet loons pray to you.
And always
the smallest of warblers,
the Italian sparrows,
trill of the sea.
Child, fear not the night.
Call not for home.
Listen in the dark.
God hums and saints chirp.
Follow their truth.
All sound sings perfume.
Forest flowers rained on by angels
color-wash your lips.
Buttercups and cowslip,
bluebells and bellflowers
silk your tongue.
Purple angelica
and Tuscan blue rosemary
stain your voice.
Croon it all.
Nodding lilies and honey garlic,
snowball bush and Florentine iris.
Bring them to your body,
roll in them,
and with the birds
suck their nectar.
Suzanne Scarfone is a poet from Michigan. Influenced by English Romanticism and French Surrealism, her writing paints the visionary musical moments found in the smallest details of everyday life. Her work has appeared in such journals as New Feathers Anthology, Cider Press Review, Phoebe, Coe Review, Frigg, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Cirque: A Literary Journal for the North Pacific Rim, and in the anthology To Light a Fire: 20 Years with the InsideOut Literary Arts Project . She has also co-authored Lessons from Afghanistan: A Curriculum for Exploring Themes of Love and Forgiveness.
Amethyst Review 