A Poetry Collection

My mother saw the green toad

My mother saw the green tree toad

on the window sill

her first one

since she was young.

We saw it breathe

and swell up round.

My youth is no sure sign

I'll find this kind of thing

tho it does sing.

Let's take it in

I said so grandmother can see

but she could not

it changed to brown

and town

changed us, too.

Lorine Niedecker, "[My mother saw the green tree toad]" from Collected Works, edited by Jenny Penberthy, Copyright © 2002 Regents of the University of California. Published by University of California Press.