Saplings

A One-Line Poem for Chalkboard’s Prompt: Children by Rahul Misra

Photo by Robert Collins

How soft we were
before fire danced
across our bellies
and drove us upward,
away from the dirt,
before the concentric
layering and the hardening

of our skin.

About the Author

Owen Banner spent his childhood baptized in the red dirt of Mandeville, Jamaica and his adolescence in the neon morass of Manila in the Philippines. He’s lived in or traveled to countries all over the planet, nourished by people and cultures. These diverse voices plant the seeds of his stories, which twist genre and seek new perspectives. Discover more at owenbanner.com.