Question

poem on ideal child of 3 stanza or more

Answer 1

As Children KnowBy Jimmy Santiago Baca

Elm branches radiate green heat,

blackbirds stiffly strut across fields.

Beneath bedroom wood floor, I feel earth—

bread in an oven that slowly swells,

simmering my Navajo blanket thread-crust

as white-feathered and corn-tasseled

Corn Dancers rise in a line, follow my calf,

vanish in a rumple and surface at my knee-cliff,

chanting. Wearing shagged buffalo headgear,

Buffalo Dancer chases Deer Woman across

Sleeping Leg mountain. Branches of wild rose

trees rattle seeds. Deer Woman fades into hills

of beige background. Red Bird

of my heart thrashes wildly after her.

What a stupid man I have been!

How good to let imagination go,

step over worrisome events,

                               those hacked logs

                               tumbled about

                               in the driveway.

Let decisions go!

                               Let them blow

                               like school children’s papers

                               against the fence,

                               rattling in the afternoon wind.

This Red Bird

of my heart thrashes within the tidy appearance

I offer the world,

topples what I erect, snares what I set free,

dashes what I’ve put together,

indulges in things left unfinished,

and my world is left, as children know,

                               left as toys after dark in the sandbox.