Gigi

Cameron Morse

Whorl of dark hair on the scalp of my newborn
daughter Gigi, so thin her scalp shows
through, and the red cloud of a rash. My life,
too, is a circular arrangement, a kind of circular
reasoning for one life to give meaning
to another. Gigi’s face averted, her cheek smooshed
in solemn, needful sleep is enshrined
in the white noise emanating from my iPhone

aglow among white leaves in the blue
print of the bedspread. I saw a photograph of myself
as a young man who could not imagine
having kids, the affirmation involved in that and now
I want a third magnolia to complete 
the trinity of blooming trees.  


Cameron Morse (he, him) is Senior Reviews editor at Harbor Review and the author of eight collections of poetry. His first collection, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press’s 2018 Best Book Award. His latest is The Thing Is (Briar Creek Press, 2021). He holds an MFA from the University of Kansas City-Missouri and lives in Independence, Missouri, with his wife Lili and three children. For more information, check out his Facebook page or website.

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