To dare the Devil,
Look him straight in his face
Latch onto his fiery eyes
And say, ‘Who do you think you are,
Anyway.”

Dangerous. Yes, it is.
But she does it every day,
Several times, as a matter of fact.
Without flinching
Her three-year-old frame.

She

Mounts step stools
Scales ladders,
Tumbles off beds
With agility known only to the
Great Wallendas.

Performing for a camera
Adds to the excitement
But nothing can compete
With dismissing, without care,
The brimstone footprints
on the playroom floor.

She

Hanging upside down
On the thinnest of ropes,
While waving a tiny hand at
The neighbor’s corgi,
Threw Beelzebub into flash-fire fits.

Egging her on,
To greater heights,
the Father
Reminded her,
“Its in your name,
The Valora part. ”

“You’ll never fall to evil,
Blink at fear,
And
When you learn to spell,
The word you’ll choose first,
Will be

INVINCIBLE.”

Charlene James-Duguid
Amissville , Virginia