Devon Balwit
Baby wants both
to virtue signal and blow
her dog whistle, to deplore
and implore with identical
breaths, to slack-jaw
before canvas and page
yet hold her tongue
at the news’ unspooling.
Baby wants baby and bath water,
the lukewarm and the wail,
arms waving and prayerful,
to dunk her well-meaning
bucket but tip it before
reaching lips. Her tongue’s
the only daintily lapping
what’s left at the rim,
so pink, so precious, so poised.
Devon Balwit is the author of A Brief Way to Identify a Body (Ursus Americanus Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared in Rattle, Poets Reading the News, The NewVerse News, The Ekphrastic Review, Peacock Journal, and more. For more of her poetry, reviews, collections, and chapbooks, visit her website, devonbalwitpoet.
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