from "understory (week 35)"
Published in Poem Of The Day
"she's kicking"
nalani says
holds my
hands against
her belly
so warm!
chicken broth
boils in
the crockpot
bones turn
in briny
liquid-baby
kicks again
can she
feel my
body heat?
magma rises
water into
steam-Kilauea
drill, turbine
Mauna Loa
grid, undersea
cables-is
geothermal safe?
baby's so
active tonight
nalani presses
my palms
deeper into
this skin
drum e
Pele e
*** The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.
About This Poem
"This poem is an excerpt from a weekly series of poems I wrote during my wife's pregnancy. The title, 'understory,' refers to plants and young trees that grow beneath the main canopy of a jungle or forest." -Craig Santos Perez
About Craig Santos Perez
Craig Santos Perez is the author of "from unincorporated territory [guma']" (Omnidawn Publishing, 2014). He teaches at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and lives in Manoa.
(c) 2014 Craig Santos Perez
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
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