I'm proud and happy to announce that my poem, Nature's Child, has been published in the 2023 Arizona Literary Magazine. The poem won Honorable Mention in the Arizona Authors Association 2022 Literary Contest.
Nature's Child
by Dawn Pisturino
She overflowed with poetry and music and laughter,
Spilling the boundaries of her life
With delicious rivulets of innocence and joy.
She danced -- naked! -- in the pure white light of a waxing moon
On a soft, sultry night at the Summer Solstice
And sang to the icicle stars in the middle of winter.
Her nakedness gleamed in moonlight and candle-light,
Sunlight and lamplight,
But she feared not the shadows or the darkness of night.
They called her witch, priestess, sorceress of the Devil.
She laughed at their ignorance --
These holy men of the Church --
And covered her nakedness with rose petals and fern.
Green ivy adorned her wavy red hair --
Long strands of vine cut from ancient oak --
And, in time, she began to resemble the earth itself.
Green moss sprouted between her virgin legs
And beneath her hollow armpits.
Her toenails twisted and curled at the ends of her feet
Like earthbound roots sunk deep into the soil.
Her arms opened wide beneath the golden sun,
Offering prayers and sacrifice to the deity of Life.
She gathered all the richness of sun and rain,
Exulting in the wild green world of her existence.
She withered with the passing years,
As her limbs grew gnarled and bare,
And the birds no longer nested in her hair,
Until hunters from the village
Found her standing on the banks of a gushing stream
And bowed down to worship Nature's Child.
May 31, 2022
