Mary Morris

Lascaux

Sleep little cave girl

That you may have blown
     red pigment over those hands
           leaving prints of your existence

Left tools    torches    paintings
     of bison    talisman
          ephemera for your children

That part of you should always lie
     in the ground inside
          the womb of this cave

where once you rubbed two sticks
     blowing spark
          into fire

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Mary Morris is the author of three books of poetry: Enter Water, Swimmer (runner-up for the X.J. Kennedy Prize), Dear October (Arizona-New Mexico Book Award) and Late Self-Portraits (Wheelbarrow Book Prize). Her work has been published in Boulevard, North American Review, Poetry, Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner and Rattle. A recipient of the Rita Dove Award, Western Humanities Review Prize and the National Federation Press Women’s Book Prize, Mary has been invited to read her poems at the Library of Congress, which aired on NPR. Kwame Dawes selected her work for American Life in Poetry from the Poetry Foundation. www.water400.org.