Toad love
She ran into the kitchen
Muddy feet, tender heart
Toad cupped in tiny hands
She dropped it in the tub
Big enough for cottage cheese
Too small for survival
It tucked its tiny feet inside itself
A baby missing the womb
I looked away
She ran for twigs
Grass, comfort
Dinner ants
She arranged the container
Quickly and skillfully
And announced, “It can’t escape.”
Later, I thought of you and you
And you
And then me and then us
How we’ve been removed
From the garden
How we’ve been replanted inside
I cannot stand to see the toad in the tub
We let her keep it
Because she thinks it knows her heart
And this seems like something
Mary Kane lives in St. Paul, Minnesota where she works as a web and digital marketing manager. She earned an MFA from Hamline University in 2012. Her work has been appeared in Murphy Square, Kaleidoscope, Burner Magazine, OVS Magazine, Sleet, and the Vermillion Literary Project magazine.
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