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Child Learning to WriteAuthor(s): Catherine BarnettSource: The Iowa Review, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Winter, 2003/2004), p. 37Published by: University of IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20155306 .
Accessed: 11/06/2014 09:14
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CATHERINE BARNETT
Child Learning to Write
i. At church he practices writing no.
Then I teach him love.
2.
When I dress him in the morning I pull on his shirt, pointing out the hole for his head,
for his hands, for his entire body.
What does vanish mean? he asks.
3
He keeps the ink between the lines
as he jags the pen up and down, sad
because he doesn't know what he is writing.
4
Out of grief ire,
fig, fire.
Almost error if we could beg an 0 off someone.
5.
Painted like a bird, labeled shrike across its wings, the shiny toy breaks.
We tape it back up, matching the lines
the torn letters make.
Love is like this?
Poor shrike, hurling its body against the ground.
37
This content downloaded from 195.78.108.74 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 09:14:44 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
