Ruth Holzer

Wonder

Father and child, book lovers both. The first time he took her to the New York Public Library, she lingered outside, fascinated by the marble lions flanking the Fifth Avenue entrance. And then into the marvelous hushed chambers. 

drifting down
on the rows of green lamps
sunlit dust

When they left, she didn’t see the lions. “Where are they?” she asked. “They got up and walked away,” he told her. She couldn’t make any sense of it, not knowing about the plain side door on 42nd Street.

pecking my palm
city pigeons
iridescent

---

About the Author

Ruth Holzer‘s short-form poems have appeared previously in cho as well as in Atlas Poetica, frogpond, Modern Haiku, Presence, red lights, Ribbons, and many anthologies. She has served as a co-editor of Haibun Today and assistant editor of tinywords. She has published five chapbooks of free verse and ghazals. Her first haibun collection, Home and Away, is now available from dancing girl press.