Norita Dittberner-Jax

Out of the Blue

A memory,

lifting the infant, howling

out of the bath,

the sturdy torso packed

with organs, the heart

beating wildly,

the navel with its primitive

stump, the tiny

buttocks and bold

genitals,

the velocity

of legs beating the air,

and, me, a genie,

gathering all

this movement and noise

into a towel, how he

collapses into me, another

baptism endured.

Norita Dittberner-Jax is a poet whose work has been widely published in small press magazines.  In 2008, The Watch, was published by Whistling Shade Press, as well as a chapbook, Longing for Home (Pudding House Press).  Her first collection of poems, What They Always Were, won the Minnesota Voices Competition and was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award.  She is the recipient of a number of awards for her writing and is one of the featured poets in Thirty-Three Minnesota Poets. She is a former English teacher for Saint Paul Public Schools and currently serves as a consultant to the district.