Laurie Kolp

Laurie Kolp'spoems have appeared widely online and in print publications. Her poetry books include the full-length Upon the Blue Couch, and chapbook Hello, It's Your Mother. An avid runner and lover of nature, Laurie lives in Texas with her husband, three children, and two dogs.

I Wanted You to Like Green Eggs

Laurie Kolp

Featured, Issue 57, Summer 2019

We stay in the downtown library while rioters

block the street, find a comfortable corner

with plaid chairs and join our hands in prayer

seeking serenity for the things we cannot change

this world we live in today. We become silent,

lost in separate thoughts. I remember sitting

in this exact place reading you Dr. Seuss. You

wiggled beside me, eyes on the window instead

of green eggs. I knew you wanted to play outside

regardless of the summer heat, but I wanted you

to uncover the musicality of rhyming words

heard rhythmically, fall in love with my favorite

picture books, classics kept after I quit teaching.

I wanted you to want to read on rainy days

pent up inside. No child of mine would not

like to read. Outside, people march for equality,

for respect for their individuality. You turn

to the window and ask if we can leave.