Thimble
David Newton Baker
Everyone is given a small amount of love
on the day they are born.
No one knows where it comes from
or who dispenses it.
Sometimes a person here or there
gets a little extra.
But no matter the amount,
it is never enough...just look around.
When I realized I had so little,
I first thought of hoarding it.
But then I didn't want to worry
about it running out or getting stolen,
So I spent it all in one place on a Thursday
and that's when these lies began to scramble for darker corners.
The next day I sat in the ER
waiting for news of my friend with a broken jaw.
I needed some of the love I had squandered
and I looked there in my heart where it used to be.
Though still only a thimble full,
by some miracle it was still there.
So I scooped up all of it and
spent it on my friend.
Tomorrow when I wake up,
I'll peek in again.
Perhaps I'll find the empty heart I expect,
or maybe another secret delivery.
If it really is full again,
I just might become a bigger spender.
A bottomless thimble holds
just as much as a bottomless ocean.
The Sky Is On Fire
David Newton Baker
I am in my room. The old toy chest is open. I'm holding my floppy doll grandmother made. One of the button eyes is loose. I twirl my finger around it and it falls off.
There is something bad happening outside. I creep around the side of the house and see mother and grandmother staring up at the sky from the front porch, crying. The sky is on fire. The fire engines are on our street shooting water at the sky. It doesn't help. It is the end of the world.
I didn't know my doll's eyes controlled the weather. I didn't know pulling the button off would catch the sky on fire. I am ashamed. I hide beside the house and watch.
My dad comes into my room to ask why I am crying. I sit up in bed and tell him the sky caught fire. I didn't tell him I did it. He says the sky didn't catch on fire. There is nothing in the sky to burn. He goes back to bed.
I saw the fire in the sky. I know what it did. I don't want to go to sleep ever again. But every night, even though I say I don't want to go to bed, they make me lay down and I do the same terrible thing. I destroy the world
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