Once Her Teacher Called Me by Malaika King Albrecht

Once Her Teacher Called Me

because my daughter
had a pocketful of roly-polies.
Her teacher said
they don’t belong in school,
so she snuck them home
in her lunchbox with dirt, leaves,
and a single sweetgum ball.
We made a terrarium
from a clear plastic container
with small holes in the lid.
Some days in the school pickup line,
I’m soul-caught
like a cloud snagged
in a sycamore branch,
this close to freedom
without wind or wings.
I often write soul
when I mean soil.
The tip of the trowel—
a slim sample:
clay,
loam,
silt—
each slice
teeming
with invisible worlds.
At home she opens
the cabinet under the sink
to spritz them,
offering a bit of apple
or strawberry, holding
the living circles,
which unfold
in her open hands.

*

Malaika King Albrecht’s fifth book, The Long Apprenticeship, is forthcoming in fall 2026 from Main Street Rag. She served as the inaugural Heart of Pamlico Poet Laureate and is the author of four other poetry books, including most recently The Stumble Fields, which was a finalist in the 2021 Eric Hoffer Award (Main Street Rag 2020). She’s the founding editor of Redheaded Stepchild, an online magazine that only accepts poems that have been rejected elsewhere.