LIFE
after Tomaz Salamun’s History
Katie Grey is a unicorn.
Katie Grey is an arrow plummeting through the forest.
She gallops through the misty magical trees.
We wish her luck.
Maybe she is the life of the wind.
Maybe she is the trees that make the forest.
She might be the rivers that run through the trees.
Maybe she is the sound of the birds who perch in the truffyala trees.
She might be the river that runs through the forest.
She might be the spirit of the animals passed on.
But something might catch Katie Grey.
Possibly killed and stuffed and put out for all to see.
Next year she’ll live in Lollypopland.
People there think that no matter what happens,
Katie Grey will be there.
Maybe the gardens will die when Katie Grey goes.
She shall be missed very badly.
But in Lollypopland people will say “Look, this is Katie Grey.
She went to the apple tree with her husband to get an apple.”
—from 2015 Rattle Young Poets Anthology
__________
Why do you like to write poetry?
Caitlyn Wickham: “I like to write poetry because when I write it I can write about anything and I like to make the words flow together.”