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 The words of Margaret K. Menges team up with the oil paintings of Kathleen Huddle resulting in an original art book graced with poetry. Even though the paintings depict Huddle’s children, they represent the universal child. Menges wrote of the bath, a time honored ritual performed by mothers throughout the ages, while Huddle recorded the bathing antics of her infant twins on canvas.
Children of the Sky makes a perfect gift for mothers because it strikes a chord of recognition in mothers of all ages and celebrates the innocence and beauty of babies.
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She turns on the water, cool to warm,
places her fingers under fleshy folds,
lifts each of you like an offering,
does what has been done before:
mothers, fathers, holding babies up,
lowering them to rivers — Euphrates,
Danube, Rio Grande — dipping them in
ponds and streams, bathing them in
wooden barrels, kitchen sinks or white
porcelain tubs with walls cupped like
pieces from a potter’s wheel. She places
the palm of her hand on your head, while
you, in turn, reach forward, fingers
questioning what circles away. Feeling
your pulse beat through wet curls, she
returns again to childhood summers, touches
again the moss that grew where she hid,
full of wonder, dreaming of who she would
be, who she would love.
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