Lisa Barnett

Little Bud, Unready

for my newborn granddaughter

Little bud, unready to unfold

into the brilliant world at once unscrolled;

to open eyes and fists at one day old

is more than you signed up for. No one told

you how your new life would commence in cold

and light and noise. A stark surprise unrolled,

as though from paradise you’d been paroled,

undersized, unready to unfold—

reluctant little bud, just one day old. 

Lisa Barnett’s poems have appeared in The Hudson Review, Measure, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Poetry, Valparaiso Poetry Review, the anthologies Sonnets: 150 Contemporary Sonnets and Extreme Sonnets, and elsewhere. She is the author of the chapbooks The Peacock Room (Somers Rocks Press) and Love Recidivus (Finishing Line Press).