John Leax

Hosted by Cara at Ooh...Books!
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One of the fun things about participating in Cara's FreeVerse is getting to revisit poets and poems I've already shared, either here or on my previous blog.

I wrote about John Leax and his Tabloid News collection last April. You can click here to read a little more about both. Tabloid News is a very unusual book. The poems take several readings to appreciate and even then, probably don't appeal to some. I like to think that's the point of this exercise, though... introducing others to poetry they might never have experienced otherwise. Try this one on for size:

Baby Born with Antlers

John Leax

Might we assume that he is a he?
Perhaps not. The antlered whitetail
familiar to our autumn woods
is a buck, but the reindeer doe
is antlered into spring.
There is no absolute in nature
on which to ground our thought.

We may, however, assume the mother bore
her child in pain. Look at those things!
Eight points, a rack for Boone and Crockett.
Let's hope the antlers were soft
and malleable, floating like golden locks
during the passage down the dark canal,
only hardening at the shock of air.
Or perhaps the birth was breech.
Either way, we may assume the child
cried at the slap of birth. There's nothing
new in that, nothing to report. But did
the mother cry? What did she think
when the midwife placed the child,
wet and wriggling, in her arms?
Did she scream, blurt out, "Monster!"
and push the double-natured thing away?

I think not. I think she recognized
her image in its flesh and loved him,
though she'd no warning of how,
when she nursed, she'd have to guard
her eyes from the sudden lifting
of his head. I think, when she first
held him, tenderly exploring his small
body, her hand touched a tiny hoof-
a baby born with antlers
would have, at least, two hooves-
and she thought, almost absently,
that she would purchase him a flute.