Poetry Day Four

Today we talked about being precise and concise. We read a selection of poems by William Carlos Williams, such as this one and this one and this one.

Here is the poem I wrote:

To Jonah on his 12th birthday

you sit
perched on the edge
of a chair and
armpit hair
I scan your upper lip
before you hug me
hoping not to see
any hopeful hairs
glinting of early stubble

your spine knobs crack and creak
beneath my anxious fingers
you melt into my arms and I
breathe you in
your love is younger
than you are
and infinitely stronger

my eyes sting
as I watch you rushing
through these days
these last days
of your youth
and I fold you up
try to fit the bones
and eager sinews of you
back
where you belong
a small helpless thing
just there
tucked up under
my heart