Jane Zwart

Rarity

My sons, given crayon bins, mine for the rarities: cadmium
red and razzmatazz. Given a baseball diamond, they kneel
in a kibble of limestone, each sifting for chipped jewels,
each sure to come home with his fist of small stones, asking
to be told they are gems. Already they have learned to want
what is scarce.
                            Blame me.
I want to draw such afternoons
a corral of colored wax. I want to rake a moat around them,
to defend as an island this trove of gravel, this now.

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Jane Zwart's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry, Ploughshares, Threepenny Review, Rattle and TriQuarterly, as well as other journals and magazines.