Connie Wasem Scott

To Protect My Young Child

1. Take the ring-necked pheasant feather your aunt mailed you,
a blue columbine you grew from a seed,
a sprig of a creosote from the desert near your house.
Grind them into a poultice for her wounds.

2. Clench seven smooth stones in your hands to warm them.
Picture your desert daughter picking them from the shallow lake.
Arrange the stones in a circle, set her inside until
they flare into torches around her.

3. Open your mouth. Let go
of the salt, those tiny silver scales. Collect them.
Sprinkle on the crown of her head.

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Connie Wasem Scott lives in Spokane, WA, where she teaches the gamut of English classes at Spokane Falls Community College and enjoys the great outdoors with her Aussie-American husband. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Cathexis Northwest, Minerva Rising, Eclectica, Sycamore Review, RHINO and other journals.