morning song

Question 1

Stanza 1

Answer 1

“Love set you going like a fat gold watch
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and you bald cry
Took its place among the elements

Question 2

Stanza 2

Answer 2

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

Question 3

Stanza 3

Answer 3

I’m no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind’s hand.

Question 4

stanza 4

Answer 4

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

Question 5

stanza 5

Answer 5

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window square

Question 6

stanza 6

Answer 6

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Question 7

Recite Morning Song

Answer 7

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I’m no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind’s hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons