to a place across the street she wants to show me
to the hollow beneath the grove of squeaky willow
to a crick in the creek she’s cleared of snow
to the spot she was standing when she first saw
the deer melt on the hillside, three
bright green portals to sunnier days
where a mama I try to explain
and two fawns must have spent the snowy night
but before I can finish she grabs my hand
and squeezes and for most of my life
I’ve wanted language always
to accompany me but for right now I’m good
My Daughter Leads Me into the Woods by Ryan Vine | Poetry Reed Diffuser Set
Ryan Vine is poet, professor of English and author of The Cave (Texas Review Press, '25), named one of the Best Poetry Books of 2025 by the California Review of Books; To Keep Him Hidden (Salmon Poetry, '18), winner of the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award; WARD (Texas Review Press, '21); and Distant Engines (Backwaters Press, '06), winner of a Weldon Kees Award. He lives with his wife and children in Duluth, MN.
