Things to make you stop, read and wonder

THINGS TO MAKE YOU STOP, READ AND WONDER

Toad Norman MacCaig

Stop looking like a purse. How could a purse squeeze under the rickety door and sit, full of satisfaction, in a man’s house?

You clamber towards me on your four corners — right hand, left foot, left hand, right foot.

I love you for being a toad, for crawling like a Japanese wrestler, and for not being frightened.

I put you in my purse hand, not shutting it, and set you down outside directly under every star.

A jewel in your head? Toad, you’ve put one in mine, a tiny radiance in a dark place.