Poem of the Week

Children of Lions

Eugenia Leigh

The rest of us,
trembling among our mothers’

bargain trench coats, waited
for Narnia. There, we dreamed

we were the children
of lions. Heirs to our own beds. Safe

in a closet rapturous with centaurs
in symphony with naiads and fauns. And I,

pink and young, swelled like a sinless sun. And I
pretended my father—

who had struck me then shoved me in—
would find my tomb empty

and repent. No, that is the adult talking.
I was a child then. It didn’t matter

what he’d done.
I still wanted to be found.

Eugenia Leigh is a Korean American poet and the author of Bianca and Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows. Her poems have appeared in many publications including Ploughshares and The Nation.
Originally published:
November 3, 2021

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