OUR GUARDIAN ANGELS
by Jac Shortland
We were wild and blessed and fed on fallen nuts,
when we played in the trees, overhanging the river.
How we didn’t meet our deaths, I do not know.
We could have got pneumonia or been poisoned or drowned
when we played in the trees, overhanging the river.
We concocted perfumes and potions with rain water and weeds
and we could have got pneumonia or been poisoned or drowned.
We could have broken our necks or set fire to ourselves
concocting our perfumes and potions from rain water and weeds
and making torches with twine and melted candles, on sticks.
We could have broken our necks or set fire to ourselves,
or been sucked underwater, never to surface again,
with our makeshift torches and twine and melted candles, on sticks.
Thigh deep in the reeds on the slippery stones, we dipped our jam jars.
We could have been sucked underwater, never to surface again
never to survive; to grow to fear the thought
of lying deep in the reeds on the slippery stones, with our jam jars.
How we didn’t meet our deaths, I do not know,
but we survived to grow. We never thought to fear
when we fed on fallen nuts and were wild and blessed.
Copyright © 2016 by Jac Shortland.