The First Child
by Barry Curtis

    The first child inhaled the air
    of the new world and made
    a fist the size of a plum.

    Looking like a hairless monkey,
    the first child had no name
    for there were no parents.

    The wind tickled each toe
    with invisible fingers.
    The first child knew no words

    and thus wondered why the sun
    sometimes became the moon
    and the moon sometimes the sun.

    Making believe one fist was the sun
    and the other the moon,
    the first child was the earth

    thirsty for rain.






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