The Loyalhanna Review

Phantom Child
© by Tikvah Feinstein
The little girl lowers her face to peer at a green grasshopper.
Eyes close, it rests on a broad leaf with brown, curled tips;
both insect and perch the colors of autumn.
She reaches to touch a warm fleshy tomato, pulls, but it
clings tight to its stem, ripe in the sun. She smells the crisp
scent of Basil, the pungent damp of the earth,
sweet Petunias and bold onions.
She turns to glance again at the still insect, hind legs
bent like stems, undisturbed and dignified; and she
suppresses an urge to catch the elbows of its legs
in her small fingers, like she has done
before, and suppresses the will
to hold the little fellow in her palm,
to watch the brown liquid spill
from his jaws while he chews and chews.
If she turns just a bit to the right, she will see
me watching. If she looks up to the bird feeder, she will spy
a squirrel eyeing her. But the little girl would rather
view the yellow finches, as they pluck sunflower seeds,
bouncing on their perches of spent flowers
in upside down positions.
I could tell her stories of a life she will join when she leaves
this yard. I could say there’s the other side of childhood, where
ideals and dreams are dashed and others judge her value,
worth by their designs and not by her deeds.
But I won’t do that to her child’s heart. And she won’t trap
a grasshopper by its legs ever again.
We both know boundaries now.
Tikvah Feinstein, director of Taproot Writers’ Workshop, has a degree in English writing from the University
of Pittsburgh and is widely published in poetry, journalism, and prose. She is author and illustrator of three
books and is working on a memoir.
Welcoming Persephone
© by Nicole Bradley
Buds arrive, leaves unfold
at the right moment. Inner knowing guides
Persephone’s journey from the underworld,
from deep damp darkness—the womb.
To the surface she rises, breaking
through hard ground. Her rebirth brings
the hope of full bloom, of ideas
and dreams brought into fruition.
What starts so small, a seed hidden
in darkness, will break free
into the light and become a giant oak,
food for nourishment, flowers for inspiration—all that
we seek.
Nicole Bradley’s hectic domestic life raising her five human children and five four-legged children is
interrupted by brief daydreams of fantastical journeys in foreign lands, and occasionally by stepping into her
role as a professional massage therapist/doula.
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