little book

can my granddaughter read you
into her rainbow moon dreams?

slow to speak, words still unclear—unicorno, popcorno
borno, bus horno, forelorno
at four
somehow
she has taught herself to read

this miracle
so startling

to read a recipe, instructions for a board game,
street signs, ads on the sides of a city bus
and books, oh she was slow in entering that world

but it is home now, little one,
of all the world, tri-racial, pigtailed
multi-lingual, lisping
singing with the little winged birds
flying from the printed page