012220d

Her burning feet of fire


Can't you hear it?
She'd asked me last night,
Something's calling,
And she went to the door,
Would have gone out into the night.
Go to bed, I said,
School tomorrow
thing's out there calling you
But in the morning her bed was empty
Covers undisturbed
And she was gone
Outside her prints in the wet new sidewalk
Laid the day before
Deeply impressed and far apart
She'd been running,
I saw her footprints changing,
Found her burst trainers,
The wet cement pushed out
Around prints elephants might make,
Larger, farther apart,
Then shallower, fainter,
Ending,
She was flying.