Poems
For My Son, Who Asked Why He Was Born
Because Earth needs the moon, else its oceans seize to stasis. Because deserts rely on grasslands to bind them in arid definition. Because pine forests yearn for fires to bring forth green renascence. Because jewel wasps pierce bugs’ ganglia to encrust jungles with their progeny. Because a hill requires wind and water to sculpt the wrinkles of its face. Because a bird’s flight is no miracle without gravity’s persistent tug. Because absent its mooring anchor, a ship is just flotsam in the end.
M. Benjamin Thorne is an Associate Professor of Modern European History at Wingate University. His poems appear or are forthcoming in Sontag Mag, Halfway Down the Stairs, Maudlin House, Belmont Story Review, and SWING. He lives and sometimes sleeps in Charlotte, NC.