If there are no frogs
when will I be a big girl?
teaching the little girls
to stalk with slow
cupped hands, to hold
without harm and discover
the bathing-capped skulls; the
eye-bowls; the lung-thin skin or
warm bark; the slight
life beating; the disgusting, hilarious,
yellow-green pee; the released spring.
How will little girls be brave
if they cannot kindly and proudly take
frogs from the waving fists of boys?

There have been reports
of frogs falling from clear skies.
They evolve, giant sperm
to tiny princes, raining
down and disappearing into the earth.
—It’s too late to kiss them;
they’ve already turned into men.

by Kate Lovelady