Reading Readiness Poem by Artchil Daug

The art of basic reading
is achieved in fingers
that pointed the syllables
and target the sound
to the curiosity of a cat
that helped a frog learn
how to use a bat
for the late afternoon
apple run, from the
upper side of the alphabet
to the lower sound
of zed, the last amphibian
attacked by the walking
stick in front of a fly
struggling to fly
in the heat of a forced
literature, confined in
the tears for freedom
from the agonizing syrup
of a blasphemous sound:
Read!