Feelings seeped
around the edges of things:
the way you thanked me
for the loan of an eraser,
the way I said,
“you’re welcome,”
the intimacy of borrowing.

The time I asked
for your calculator
and you found it for me
under stacks of books,
moving mountains;
you handed it to me as if
you were handing me
the moon.

Later, and too late, I think
perhaps these were not
benevolences bestowed,
but rather,
supplications,
and I had failed to see
in always looking up to you,
that somehow, MC Escher-like,
you looked up to me.

 

Julie Dillemuth is a picture book author, poet, and screenwriter, with a PhD in geography. She has previously published poetry in Scientific American and Highlights for Children magazines. Visit www.juliedillemuth.com to learn more.