Teaching Ruby the J
by Jennifer Lambert


She is building you paper kingdoms today,
practical shrines, as she practices
your figure in the alphabet
over and over in wobbly orange crayon.

I show her your form in strict black ink,
and I notice your rigidity --
steady straight top soldered
to your ramrod spine.
But your curved belly gives away
that you were meant to cradle things:
water, sweet apples, the tiny buttons of a spine
holding together a whole dark universe.