One winter when trees shed their ashen
leaves and turn to blackest veins, he begs
to see the big rock. It’s not far but his toddler
feet fumble with the new weight of snow boots.
Trying to worm his wriggling thumb
through the slender nub of a mitten is like
needle point. Once at the great gray rock,
he spots a flock of geese migrating and
barks at the sky—sounds like a dog, he says.
I hoist him up, mothering through the edges
of a budding migraine as he sits, clapping.
Having mounted the immovable beast, he
is triumphant.
Limbs of oak creek noisily, spread over
sharp blue sky like capillaries behind the
translucence of his eyelids and I catch him
eyeing the pink of the sun, setting.
Moony moony and the stars, he sings,
go see ‘em? And begins to shimmy down
the rock’s wild haunches. When I ask what
he’d like to tell the moon, he smiles
and says, simply, stegosaurus.
Jess L Parker
Jess L Parker is a poet and strategist from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Jess lives in Fitchburg, WI with her husband and two-year-old son. Her debut poetry collection, Star Things, won the 2020 Dynamo Verlag Book Prize. Jess’ poems have appeared in Bramble, Kosmos Quarterly, Blue Heron Review, and elsewhere. Jess holds a BA of English and Spanish from Northern Michigan University, an MA of Spanish Literature from UW-Madison, and an MBA.
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