"This World," Dick Barnes

That sudden movement will attract
a child to any inscet--which (if it
succeed in catching it) it
will crush out: that very thing

unless the child have a wise father
who can fashion a tiny halter of thread
so then the greeny gold beetle will fly and fly
and the child keep it as a toy.

From A Word Like Fire: Selected Poems.

Poetix runs another poem from this collection, "Erles," while Artful Dodge devotes a page to Barnes and translation which includes "Granite Inclusive" and "Looking for You." Robert Mezey, who edited A Word Like Fire, also honored Barnes by composing a retirement poem for him shortly before his death in 2000.