Prodigy of the Big Ones
by Peter Carrington Venable
She lives among the Anakim,
twelve-foot-high giants,
their waists barely at eyelevel.
She looks skyward to see their faces.
Doorways barricaded by caged gates—
she takes a stand, reaches to grab
the top metal bar—shakes, rattles
to no avail: the Anakim ignore her pleas.
She wears a necklace and he a neck-chain—
enormous warriors who seize
and steer her to safer places,
utter commands, demands and
snatches away contraband markers.
She climbs a padded mountain for better view and what?
this hard invisible thing her hand cannot push through?
What a fairyland of sequoias, ziggurats, and
mountainous clouds! Then, face turning red,
tears flowing, wailing and flailing tiny hands—
one Anakim reaches for Madeline’s bottle.
Peter has written sacred and secular, free and metric, sober and whimsical verse for decades. His role as "Poppy" with two granddaughters inspired this poem. Visit him at petervenable.com and Facebook.
