April 2021
Jo Taylor
Jotaylor53@hotmail.com
Bio Note: : I am a retired, 35-year English teacher from Georgia. Now that I no longer have piles of papers in my satchel, on my desk, and in my car to be graded, I am writing poetry, my favorite genre to teach while in the classroom. I have been published in Ekphrastic Review, Frost Meadow Review, and One Art.

A Father’s Ringworm Treatment, 1947

They were planets.  The small, ring-like blotch
on my arm and the growing celestial body
on my head.  Red flames, one inside the other,
garnering daily attention from every family
member and from the county’s school 
and health officials. But his attending 
was different. He pulled me close to inspect,
carefully surveilling the expanding orbit
at the crown. Then like an astrophysicist
studying mysterious phenomena in far reaches
of space, he separated a clump of hair
and began removing the single filaments
from the waxing ball of fire. I don’t recall
words or tears or pain. Just his eyes, 
blue-gray orbs, determined yet gentle, and
his hands, warm, golden in candlelight,
as he poured the bottle of Listerine over
my head, like a libation to the gods.
©2021 Jo Taylor
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