The lies I tell you, little ones,
I hope may be be forgiven:
Of course there is a Santa, hon,
Yes, Tiger’s up in heaven.
When lies forsake you, as they must,
And leave you lost, alone,
Will you forgive the broken trust?
Perhaps when you are grown,
And try to shield your children from
The darkness and the cold,
You’ll find that you are telling them
The lies your mother told.
*****
Marion Shore is the author of For Love of Laura: Poetry of Petrarch, a collecion of Petrarch’s poetry in translation published by the University of Arkansas Press in 1987. Her work has also appeared in Poems from Italy; Petrarch in English; 150 Contemporary Sonnets; and Rhyming Poems: A Contemporary Anthology. Her poems and translations have been published in numerous journals including The Formalist, Light Quarterly, Iambs and Trochees, First Things, and Measure. Recipient of the 2010 Richard Wilbur Award for Sand Castle (from which this poem is taken) and two-time winner of the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award, she lives in Springfield, MA.
“Framed White Puppy Dog Angel with Wings, Luna, American Pit Bull Terrier, Staffordshire, In Heaven from the Rainbow Bridge” by Beverly & Pack is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Form in Formless Times 