A toddler intoxicated
with colors, sounds
and smells skitters
from person to person
in an unfamiliar house
on unsteady but tireless
legs, his small head
bobbing, round mouth
conjuring over and over
a sound intelligible only
to his mother, a coinage
that might be and this?
and this? 
                         blinks
at odd lampshades,
points to open windows,
his hunger for objects
insatiable, the things
of the world impossibly
joined to a single word

John Graves Morris earned his BA in English from UW-Eau Claire in December 1977. He is the author of Noise and Stories (Plain View Press, 2008). To learn more about John, go here.