Contributor: Robert Lavett Smith

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Loosed from a wire wand,
they drift indolently
over the playground
at the rehabilitation center,
glittering spheres of light
through which children
do an awkward but oddly
compelling dance. Some burst
on the rubber flagstones;
others vanish as quickly
as young hands try to grasp them;
the whole of the scene—crutches,
canes, and walkers, shrieks
of insouciant laughter—is mirrored
in the eyes of an autistic boy
who stands always to one side,
no expression on his features.
Bubbles tumble like stars
through an ocular darkness,
a deep and stagnant water.


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Raised in New Jersey, Robert Lavett Smith has lived since 1987 in San Francisco, where for the past fifteen years he has worked as a Special Education Paraprofessional. He has published two poetry collections.