Hiding among beheaded Irish yews,
towers of guarded green,
nine children escape their day nursery.
Not for them to wander purposefully in
the scullery, dairy larder, luggage or lumber rooms,
to wonder at a salting trough or tongue press,
licking the sugar cutter to taste what they cannot feel
in their white cotton nightclothes as they dream
their mother’s capacious lap, a warm fleshy chair
large enough to hold all their whisperings
mama, please come mama.
Instead they sit on high, hard chairs waiting
until they’re allowed to gather wild mignonette,
Lady’s bedstraw, cowslip and common violet,
greedy handfuls they’ll never give away,
hoarding secret flowers to spread across little beds,
dreaming again but only of each other,
ashes, ashes, they all fall down.
Robin Dellabough is a poet, editor, and writer with a master’s degree from UC Berkeley School of Journalism. Her work has appeared in small press publications, and she has made several short films based on her poems. A founding partner at Lark Productions: A Book Company, she has written, edited and contributed to more than 60 books, including The Poets’ Corner. Her current position is Projects Director, Publishers Marketplace/Publishers Lunch. She lives in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York.