In each room there is a stone that glows a name
Detour to the hall where Truth is stacked like building blocks
Down the hall are pictures on the wall, each child’s face is shown
The cats lie sleeping fat from touch
The dogs bound outside without a leash
Every day is a different color. Grey has been removed
From the earth back where it belongs
The orphans no longer have to paint houses with their sticks of red and blue
In the new world, they no longer need to imagine.
Grace Cavalieri was Maryland’s tenth Poet Laureate Her new books are: Sticks And Stars (for children, 2026;) Fables from Italy and beyond (2025;) The Third Voice (2025;) and Owning The Not So Distant World which won the Blue Light Book Award, (2024;) Her most recent play in NYC was Quilting The Sun about ex-slave Harriet Powers. She founded and still produces The Poet and the Poem for public radio, now from the Library of Congress celebrating 50 years on-air in 2027. Twenty-five years of her podcasts were sent to the moon on lunar codex 2023. Among her awards, are the CPB silver medal, the George Garrett Award, Bordighera Prize, Paterson Prize, two Allen Ginsberg Awards. Cavalieri is featured in 2025’s The Best American Poetry Anthology. She is an Academy of American Poets Fellow.