Madeleine Gallo
To a Rabbit, Newly Born
You appear with the ending of apple blossoms,
with the final bending of the honeysuckle’s petal-cup.
See how the flower moon cycles again to strawberry. It is
the expected nature of passages that never ceases
to feel unexpected. The mother rabbit I found weeks ago
has disappeared. So for all I know, you, sudden youngling,
are not her offspring at all, but a vision of her past, virgin-
mother returned among the clovers, the red-tip leaf entrance
back to Eden, land before many births. Am I really so sick
of this body? Its rabbit-trails might not be as predictable
as flower to fruit. The yellow bird in the bush watches us
near her nest, uncertain. Soon she will be Christmas-bulb
sun hacking light in the mouth of the splintered moon egg.
Revel the this-ness of it all—us,
the goldfinch, the blessed thistle.
Madeleine Gallo earned her MFA from Hollins University. Her debut book-length collection of poems Acorn, Eggshell, Honeycomb is forthcoming from Groundhog Poetry Press. Her poems have appeared in several magazines, including Rattle, Capulet Magazine, Artemis Journal, Oyster River Pages, West Texas Literary Review, Litro, Into the Void, and others. She is the poetry editor for Susurrus: A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South.
Return to July 2022 Edition
You appear with the ending of apple blossoms,
with the final bending of the honeysuckle’s petal-cup.
See how the flower moon cycles again to strawberry. It is
the expected nature of passages that never ceases
to feel unexpected. The mother rabbit I found weeks ago
has disappeared. So for all I know, you, sudden youngling,
are not her offspring at all, but a vision of her past, virgin-
mother returned among the clovers, the red-tip leaf entrance
back to Eden, land before many births. Am I really so sick
of this body? Its rabbit-trails might not be as predictable
as flower to fruit. The yellow bird in the bush watches us
near her nest, uncertain. Soon she will be Christmas-bulb
sun hacking light in the mouth of the splintered moon egg.
Revel the this-ness of it all—us,
the goldfinch, the blessed thistle.
Madeleine Gallo earned her MFA from Hollins University. Her debut book-length collection of poems Acorn, Eggshell, Honeycomb is forthcoming from Groundhog Poetry Press. Her poems have appeared in several magazines, including Rattle, Capulet Magazine, Artemis Journal, Oyster River Pages, West Texas Literary Review, Litro, Into the Void, and others. She is the poetry editor for Susurrus: A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South.
Return to July 2022 Edition