by Ann E. Michael

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small blotch the shape of an imagined continent or a
wing’s purple imprint. Such amazement.

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When she first clasped the small body emergent from her
body, in darkness, what she memorized was shape, warmth,
scent. In the dim light his eyes gleamed, alert, not yet focused,
open to meet her gaze. Her milk let down, they slept, and then
by day she studied his newness, unswaddled his curled body,
noticed his skin’s padded delicacy and the mark on his shoulder-
blade, small blotch the shape of an imagined continent or a
wing’s purple imprint. Such amazement. She would stroke that
spot whenever soothing him: there. There.

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© Ann E. Michael

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Ann E. Michael (she/her) lives in eastern Pennsylvania, where for many years she ran the writing center at DeSales University. Her book The Red Queen Hypothesis won the 2022 Prairie State Poetry Prize; she’s the author of Water-Rites (2012) and six chapbooks. Her next collection, Abundance/Diminishment, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books in the spring of 2024. She maintains a long-running blog at www.annemichael.blog.

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