• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Poetry Catalog

We honor great poets. We honor great poetry.

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Submit Your Work
  • Writers
  • Advertising / Subscription

O To Be A Child On The Island Of Inchkeith, By: Emma Goldman-Sherman

August 13, 2024 by Emma Goldman-Sherman

O To Be A Child On The Island Of Inchkeith, By: Emma Goldman-Sherman

where the wild world could be all mine
in the Firth of Forth to be one of the two

to be raised as an experiment by a deaf mute
so James IV could find the original language

the speech of the angels
as they spoke to G-d

O to be one of the untouched, to be brought up
four miles from what he’d call civilized

where the welt-woodlands cleanse the sins
of the citified, where no man would break in-

to the jewel-filled vault of me
cracked like a can from the fridge

when he’s pissed itching to do what he could
O to be somewhere anywhere safe and good

where nothing would be assigned my fault
for what should be adored as alive

where no man would insist I exist
only to please him and many others alike

how they turn us all inside out with their names
for what in their nature they never could tame

as if they can blame us and distance from shame
O if only I could have been raised freely

where butterflies sleep in their sacred caves
until emerging on their own in their sacred time

O to have been a child on the isle of Inchkeith
where the wild world might have been mine

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest

Related

Filed Under: Poems

Get Every Post In Your Inbox 😳

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
(This is not the newsletter.)

Primary Sidebar

Never Miss A Poem (Newsletter)

Be Social

  • X
  • Facebook

Top Posts & Pages

  • By The Babe Unborn, By: G.K. Chesterton
    By The Babe Unborn, By: G.K. Chesterton
  • O'er The Wide Earth, On Mountain And On Plain, By: William Wordsworth
    O'er The Wide Earth, On Mountain And On Plain, By: William Wordsworth
  • Boom Box, By: Mary Bone
    Boom Box, By: Mary Bone
  • Prayer Mats, By: Mary Bone
    Prayer Mats, By: Mary Bone
  • All Clear, By: Paul White
    All Clear, By: Paul White
  • Clarion, By: Paul White
    Clarion, By: Paul White
  • My Mother's Thyroid, By: Diane Elayne Dees
    My Mother's Thyroid, By: Diane Elayne Dees
  • I Could Stay Lost, By: Mary Bone
    I Could Stay Lost, By: Mary Bone
  • The Mimic, By: Mary Bone
    The Mimic, By: Mary Bone
  • Potato Digger, By: Mary Bone
    Potato Digger, By: Mary Bone

Advertising/Subscribing = Loving

Buy Me A Coffee

Sign up for the newsletter. Get a gift.

Footer

Made with ❤ in Lubbock, TX.

Poetry Catalog Sponsors

Haiku Examples

Search

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in