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Poetry | March 2010

Claire in a Swing

By Anne Whitehouse

Baby-becoming-a-child,
where do you go,
rising and dropping back
like a pendulum?

Not joyous as I’d thought
after your eager cries
at seven a.m.
of “Park!” and “Swing!”

Instead of reaching out
to embrace the tilting world,
you retreat into yourself,
a faraway look on your face,

as if suspended from heaven
by a tether. Here is echoed
all your changeless swinging:
serene, you rise and sink

in crevasses of air.
I’d keep you back a while
but you have already flown
out of my arms.

2 replies on “Claire in a Swing”

Tamzen Flanderssays:
March 8, 2010 at 9:14 am

Anne, I could see the baby Claire so clearly in my mind’s eye, not just the corporeal Claire, that is, but her particular, enigmatic and beautiful spirit. Tamzen

Reply
Paul Berne`says:
March 15, 2010 at 6:03 pm

I know the swing well….I`m proud to be part of her life and continue to do so love always Paul

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