For Katie
By César Sánchez Beras

She’s no longer a child, and she wears her skirts short.
She has polished her nails and unbraided her hair;
the angel whose light lit her eyes is still there,
but now wears a dress of the rose-wreathy sort.

She’s no longer a child with a taste for ice cream;
she’s not dreaming of ghosts, she’s not frightened of storms,
and the songs she invents are the ones she performs,
full of tragic adventures, like those lovers dream.

What advice I am tempted to give, I withhold,
since I live on a planet reserved for the old,
and I fear storms that harass the soul for their sport ...

Like a rustic Quixote, I wield a tin sword
to keep from her bower the barbarous horde
assailing my child, since she wears her skirts short.

César Sánchez Beras, a member of the Methuen-based Grey Court Poets, was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 1962. He holds a doctor of laws degree as well as a master of education, and teaches Spanish and Literature at Lawrence High School. He has published a variety of poetry collections including “Memorias del Retorno,” “Trovas del Mar/Troves of the Sea,” “El Sapito Azul/The Little Blue Frog” and “Lawrence City And Other Poems.” His honors include the Dominican Annual Prize for Poetry and the Dominican Annual Prize for Children's Literature.

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Born and raised in Methuen, Dominic Delabruere is now studying at Marymount Manhattan College in New York. He says a trip home made him realize what a wonderful place Methuen can be and inspired this poem. He is a member of the Grey Court Poets.

To find out more about the Grey Court Poets, visit www.mattkraunelis.com.