By Ann Neuser Lederer

This one has flopped its tired body
across my chest      I caress
Its damp curls      Its hot cheek

That one      In the corner
Stands silent      Looking

I cannot move my own eyes away
from the direction of its glance

Last night the room filled with them
Rolling and cuffing each other
    I would not be irritated
I could not tell them      Quiet! It is night!
I chatted along with them

Into the dim I tracked their laser sparks
    The dribble of their bubble wands
    Their red haired darting
    Their babbling glitter
Now they seem to have bounced away

But still I hear one thinly whimper
Oh      I say to my daughter
Do you hear that baby crying?
It's just a kitten's meow      She says

---

This poem previously appeared in the chapbook, The Undifferentiated (Pudding House, 2003).

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