J. S. Kuiken

In the Night (Day 5)

And in the night

there you come

hands like brands

and lips like embers.

The Baby (Day 6)

Little toes

like pink snails.

Little eyes

onyx-dark.

Little tummy

soft as a sack of grain.

Little tuft of hair

a brown coil like darkened bronze.

Little freckles

skin like toasted almonds.

A little laugh

to light the world.

Right now I don’t consider this last poem finished. I’m going to go back and finish it — mostly adding lines, and then fixing the last line (“to light the world”) because it’s hideously cliche. I was pressed for time and space, and thus rushed the poem. The lesson here: poetry can never be rushed.