Jennifer Gauthier

As I tucked my son into bed tonight
I noticed his legs were covered in scabs:
red and angry, circular welts.

But it’s not measles
or chicken pox,
leprosy or impetigo.

Call it late-summer-
roll-in-the-grass-
freeze-tag-at-dusk-
‘smores-by-the-fire-
boys-will-be-boys-
gone-in-a-week

freckles.

Jennifer Gauthier is a recovering academic who is working on her first chapbook of poems about forgotten women of history.