Kelley Jean White
Rickets
love spilling from your dark eyes
beyond your veiled face, your baby girl
not walking, not growing, not standing,
her birthday gone by; I have to tell you sunlight,
not enough vitamin D spilling from your breasts–
it is a word we've near forgotten
but now my city children's legs bow and crack–
oh god, for my dear friend, for her baby, for me,
oh open us to your good sky
Bio
Pediatrician Kelley White worked in inner city Philadelphia and now works in rural New Hampshire. Her poems have appeared in journals including Exquisite Corpse, Rattle and JAMA. Her most recent books are TOXIC ENVIRONMENT (Boston Poet Press) and TWO BIRDS IN FLAME (Beech River Books). She received a 2008 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant.