Boy Wonder
It was on days like this when,
As a child,
I believed the fairies came out,
Emerging from their forest bowers and
ocean coves to fly low above the rooftops,
Their presence meant to direct the
wind and the rain where to go,
And where not to,
So that the trees would bend but not
break,
The roads would slick but not flood,
Everything shining,
The streetlights on asphalt,
The headlights through fog,
And all of us,
Child and driver and mother and poet,
Would know that what was washed away—
Sunlight and flower,
Footprints and color—
Would someday return.
Kareem Tayyar’s most recent book is Magic Carpet Poems (Tebot Bach Books). Previous collections include Follow the Sun (Aortic Books), Postmark Atlantis (Level 4 Press) and Scenes From A Good Life (Tebot Bach Books). His poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac With Garrison Keillor, and in a variety of literary journals, including Cultural Weekly and Review Americana. He is a Professor of English at Golden West College, and he received his Ph.D. in American Literature from U.C. Riverside.
