Innocence

LeighAnna Schesser

My eldest daughter gives me a stick,
says, “This is your poem now.”

The water at the bottom of the well shines
dark as a new moon.

Trees obscure the stars and I forget
how an afternoon of lightness
in a cotton summer blows me sail-like
over the daily surf that smooths
and mars, smooths and mars.

The stick is gray, irregular, long, light.
Now a sword, a wand, a beaten song.
Now an earth-driven staff. What will endure.

LeighAnna Schesser is the author of Heartland (Anchor & Plume Press, 2016), a poetry chapbook that explores the convergence of landscape, identity, love, and faith. Her poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in publications such as Flint Hills Review, Dappled Things, Presence, Peacock Journal, Angelus News, and Ignitum Today. LeighAnna earned her BA at Benedictine College and her MFA at North Carolina State University. She lives in Kansas with her family and blogs at acanticleforhomestead.com.