Katherine Spadaro

When He Created You

My child, if you should close one eye

and just look down, you see a view

which no one else can see but you –

That sideways vista of your nose

is known to none but God and you,

and this will, all your life, be true:

Though you may share your heart and life,

no lover gets that close to you,

no doctor can quite share that view;

No matter how old you will get -

while you receive great accolades,

or wait until they sentence you -

Whatever layers you accrue,

you’ll always be the person that

God made, when he created you.

Katherine Spadaro was born in Scotland, has lived for many years in Australia, and is now in Turin, Italy with her husband. Poetry happens for (to?) her when the familiar suddenly seems strange and momentous—and wondering how that moment can be expressed is the work of writing. Occasionally a poem gets accepted on its first outing but most of them get edited in a dungeon for years.