Poetry Friday: Animals Eat Sunlight

Poet Heidi Mordhorst of My Juicy Little Universe is hosting Poetry Friday today, and she asked us to write poems about "lighting the dark" by way of celebrating the Winter Solstice with her and her family. Here's my poem:

Animals Eat Sunlight

“Animals eat sunlight,” I tell my students.

They don’t believe me. I explain how light

is caught by the green nets of leaves

and eaten by cows that become fast food

hamburgers and how we eat leaves in salads—

bowls of sunlight adorned with ranch dressing

and croutons. “Sunlight is energy,” I say.

I don’t talk about the way the sun

has been worshipped for thousands of years

as a mighty golden god or the hope after winter.

I don’t tell them how my heart lifts

with each sunrise. How it astonishes me

that day is somehow here again.

I don’t speak of my fierce love for the star

first graders draw in the upper corners

of their pictures with yellow crayons,

that circle blessing the house with its chimney

and family, its row of red flowers

like smaller suns. At recess, I walk outside.

I do not look directly at the sun, deferential,

but I feel it touching my skin. I feel

like a tree, stretching my branches,

my green nets, my everything towards light.

—Kate Coombs, 2012

all rights reserved

For more poems and links, visit the Poetry Friday post at My Juicy Little Universe. Happy Solstice, Happy Holidays, Happy Season of Candlelight and Starlight!