Dale Champlin

Jump Down Spin Around

–after “Shake the Dust” by Anis Mojgani

This is for wee babies—their dribbles & giggles. This is for naptimes & nappies
—lullabies, burps & the sweet smell on the backs of tiny necks. This is for
mama’s milk & her womb tightening with each suckle back to the size of her fist.
This is for serious looks & furrowed brows & rubber duckies at bath time. This
is for Johnny-Jump-Ups & learning to squeal with each bounce.

Jump Down Spin Around

This is for grandparents. This is for Mummum’s lubby-dubby arms & her soft lap.
This is for the scent of lavender in her white hair. This is for Papa’s whiskers & his
strong but gentle hugs. This is for being read to at bedtime. This is for reading the
same story over & over. This is for grandparents swinging toddlers to the moon &
trips around the block only holding on to one finger for each of them.

Jump Down Spin Around

For joy & walking now. This is for sunglasses & socks with sticky dots on the
bottoms so toddlers don’t fall down when they step on the hardwood. This is for
dogs playing nursemaid & one-year-olds climbing into the dog bed with them.
This is for the carpet on the playroom floor covered with toys & more toys that
don’t quite fit into a one-year-old’s mouth.

Jump Down Spin Around

This is for music—ukuleles, penny whistles, xylophones & toy pianos.This is for
the Beetles on TV & bugs in the garden. For chickens & orchards, swings & slides.
This is for tricycles & tractors, Thomas the Tank Engine even though he isn’t real.
This is for rag dolls & stuffies & Elsa & Anna. This is for singing at the top of your
lungs & soft pillows to scream into.

Jump Down Spin Around

This is for the alphabet. Now you can write a grocery list. Bubblegum, Ovaltine,
hot chocolate mix, strawberries & ice cream, Nutella & potato chips. Love is for
family, kindergarten, Roald Dahl & preschool. This is for Into the Woods &
Matilda, The Mandalorian & baby Grogu, tree frogs & owls, dinosaurs & the
biggest, strangest & most rare stones, birds, animals ever. Where did the first
dinosaur come from? This is for squid eyes big as soccer balls. This is for soccer
balls.

Jump Down Spin Around

Burn your finger. Get smoke in your eyes till you cry. This is for air & airplanes,
warships, catastrophes & vocabularies. What’s the word? filthy, tentacles, tapestry,
escapology & virtual. Take a hike, swim a lap, do a forward, back, egg & pencil roll.
Win a trophy, then two, three & more. Stick them up on the mantle. Learn a
song, write a rhyme, bake a cake & shake a leg. Become a math wiz, A+ in algebra.
Name the planets in order from the sun. Quiz your grandmother just for fun.
Drive a tractor & a motorcycle. Drive your mother to distraction.

Dale Champlin, an Oregon poet with an MFA in fine art, has poems in The Opiate, Timberline, Pif, and Triggerfish Critical Review among other journals. Dale has three poetry collections; The Barbie Diaries, Callie Comes of Age, 2021, and Isadora, 2022. Three additional collections, Leda, Medusa, and Andromina, A Stranger in America are forthcoming. dalechamplin.com