Poetry

First Breaths

WHAT foundling on those stairs?
The story comes from a star.

What angels light the candles’ glow?
Anyone I know?

Who paved the Milky Way in white?
A mule a pale rider writes.

What hand shoos the fly away?
Caring Mary in her gardening sway.

Who drives the goat and worm?
Quixote’s impossible dream.

Why is the mother not scared to death?
There’s comfort in a small thing like a breath.

Shelby Stephenson

Shelby Stephenson was poet laureate of North Carolina, 2015-2018. His recent book of poems is Slavery and Freedom on Paul's Hill.

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Heavenly Rain