Poetry

Prayer for my daughter as an alligator

I pray that the shade of my body

does not cause your tissue to pucker

and redden and blossom all over

like crater-fall. Like minefields dug up.

I hope that you grow spines. I pray

that for every tooth you lose you grow

two more in the sifted soil. I pray that

people mistake you for something

more aggressive. I pray that one day

you will discover that your webbed

feet can find purchase on tree trunks

and that is how you learn to look up

and see stars.

Amy Devine is an artist from a lineage of artists whose work has been featured in several publications including Orange Peel, Gems and Beyond the Veil Press. She is based in Sydney, Australia and she is inspired by history and the narrative of humanity.