His World to Learn
His World to Learn
Kevin LaTorre
Inside our bowl his letters clatter into
rings he stirs round, wringing the words to come
from these plastic magnets
this toddler swirls and shakes.
He learned to peel
them off the fridge, collecting his text
like he clutches his found pebbles: loose
to drop to dust
them down again,
so gravity weights his chalky
fingers. Clack-ack, clack-ack,
all his waking hours he tests this world.
His highchair numbers snacks in drops
from fingers down to the waiting dog:
one cheerio, one more, then three
into the panting maw.
When he screeches up past his cries
to crest his octaves’ scales,
he studies the saints who praise on high
from pews, all through his wails.
He pats a time, again, a time
upon our chairs: his drum
from air percusses songs that rhyme
and makes agrin his hum.
His looseleaf world teaches to him its heart:
the Voice who makes it and the boy, His art.
Kevin LaTorre
Writer & Poet
Kevin's fiction, essays, and poems have appeared in Plough, Ekstasis, Solum Literary Journal, The Rialto Review of Books, and other venues. He writes at kevinlatorre.substack.com.
Photography by Oscar Nord