Two poems by Ben Groner III

Norfolk, Virginia

In the Ronald McDonald House kitchen

the little girl called my name,

so I knelt down again

and stared into sparkling sapphire eyes

as she laughed and jumped and danced

on the linoleum floor

like a spinning top

while dusk’s thick rays poured

through whitewashed blinds

like honey

and I prayed she could grow up

without the world laying a hand

against her, touching her only

to lift her up.

A Strange Thought

From this valley, some gaze up at the mountain’s ridge

and say death is a starless sky blacker than pitch,

for we can’t see beyond this most silent of seas;

does the end come to everyone else or only to me?

But haven’t you ever woken in wonder from a dream,

in the hushed hours of dawn? in the folds of morning?

and aren’t we aware that a newborn child

emerges from darkness and into the light?

BEN GRONER III (Nashville, TN), recipient of Texas A&M University’s 2014 Gordone Award for undergraduate poetry, has work published in Appalachian Heritage, Third Wednesday, New Mexico Review, Fourth & Sycamore, Texas Poetry Calendar, and elsewhere. You can see more of his work at bengroner.com/creative-writing/