So Often Ignored
by Odin Roark

Nannies know little of color
White holding favor by 5th Ave employers
Barons and Baronesses of means
Gazing from insulated windows on high
As infant guardian merges blanketed carriage and job
Into daily Central Park realities

Inquisitive bundled baby stares
Starched guardian
Folded like a napkin atop the park bench
Idles her time with smartphone pressed to ear
Caressing air-born voices
To soften dreams
Rigid as the armor-hardened uniform
She wears

Mittened hands strain with curiosity
As sweatered pit bull puppy
Strains at leash
Infant eyes tear of confinement
Duty and resolve tethers canine away


Both wondering in infantile language
Must naïve curiosity always remain separated
Why so much fearful exposure
Engendering further fear
Made to keep separate
Connections intended

From eight stories up on the avenue
Binoculared eyes and iphoned voice
Remind Nanny to place baby's reaching hands
Beneath angora blanket
Protect
Protect

The puppy sniffs another moment
Nannie pockets smart phone
Gathers responsibility
Wheels away doleful innocence
Master jerks leash
Ever mindful of misunderstanding

Suddenly...

The simple language
Pant
Lick
Smile
Giggle
Contact
Becomes one's early experience
Cautioning of query's risk

Onlookers duck heads
Perhaps conscious acknowledgment
Might create fatal pause

Thus

Retreating ignorance by observers
Becomes a "through a glass darkly" for innocents
Risking perhaps forever embe dded distrust
As the child with smiles
A puppy with out-of-control-tail swag
Separate
Unrequited love
Becomes just another vanishing moment
For disquieted hearts

Simple lessons of oneness
So often ignored