Pamela L. Laskin

Daughter

You burst into beauty
the moment of conception,

proud Mama was I
as you grew,
so did the blonde locks
that cascaded down your back
like Rapunzel’s
(I would never cut them)
and you were smart as Socrates.

Now I gaze
at the reams
of words-pollen
on white orchards.

When did this garden grow
to dazzle such spectators?

Each word-
translucent
with petals of perfection,
while inside
a stamen of saturation
dense with the duty of meaning.

Where was the garden birthed?

Surely not in my womb.
My words now wither
like dried leaves
in winter.

Pamela L. Laskin is a lecturer in the English Department at The City College, and Director of The Poetry Outreach Center. Three of her poetry books have been published, GHOSTS, GOBLINS, GODS AND GEODES (World Audience Press, 2008); REMEMBERING FIREFLIES (Plain View Press, 2007) and CENTRAL STATION was the winner of the Millennium Poetry Prize in 2002. She edited THE HEROIC YOUNG WOMAN (Clique Calm Books, 2006), a collection of original fairy tales. Hundreds of her poems and dozens of her stories have been published. This is her second publication for Best Poem.