Agoloso Presents - Atondido Stories Agoloso Presents - Mama Mada | Page 252

Mama Mada
finding you drifting on the cut grass breeze.
The morning you didn’t wake up
the whole house shook and we all began digging.
They carried you away in a cardboard box
through the blackberry lanes to a quieter place
where people remembered you well,
and we left you there, behind stone,
for the next two hundred million years.
Animal Guess Who
by Claire Walk er
It makes the car journey
shorter. My daughter picks, I ask the questions
and she fills in the gaps. I discover
they run fast, have soft fur,
they look friendly, they don’t bite.
I guess, her strawberry curls
tumble over her smile as she nods. My turn.
I think of parrots – their primary coloured
loudness; the willingness to imitate,
effects of learned behaviour.
I think of kangaroos; their built-in papoose,
the way a child warms a stomach.
I think of elephants; their grounded solid feet.
How they hold such weight
on their backs.
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