WORD AS LIGHT BY JOHN HOYTE

I am two, on a footbridge
in China. My mother holds me
over a bubbling stream.
          She says, Look, Jackie.
My toes barely touch the ripples
and the colors dance.
I laugh the laugh of discovery,
find that light responds to my will.
God doesn’t mind that I am
a little god, a creator of color.
My mother opened my eyes
to the magic of light.
I still hear her voice, ninety years later.
          Go, play with color.

John Hoyte is a 93 year old artist and enjoys writing poetry. Born of Medical Misionary parents in China, graduated from Cambridge and founded a Silicon Valley startup.