He sits, a pillow-propped pasha, a prophet

with a rounded and gauze-swathed belly

and dimpled nipples, attended by his soft

disciples—a cheerful zebra, Peter Rabbit,

and a pacifier-attached dragon—who circle

a hospital crib amid the meditative sough

and sigh of the ventilator. Bedside, we too

are eager to receive our child’s teachings.

The wet, gummy smile lights even his eyes,

making room, in this moment, for joy.

Amy Fleury (she/her) is the author of two collections of poems, Beautiful Trouble and Sympathetic Magic, and a chapbook, Reliquaries of the Lesser Saints. Her poetry has appeared in such journals and anthologies as Gracious: Poems from the 21st Century South, Image, swamp pink, American Literary Review, and others. She taught at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where she directed the M.F.A. program for over a decade