Good night, baby girl
November 10, 2004
iranian.com
Roger Humes and I won the Harvest
International award for Best Poem with "Good Night, Baby Girl".
I open the window
so that she can hear the sound of the night,
so that she can smell the fresh scent,
and when the rain starts
she will hear her mama again
walking quietly as a breeze of air
to cover her from the cool of the storm.
Watch her gently as she
stirs slightly,
amazed by the face, so small
and innocent, that reflects the generations
back through untold time, that moves
toward a future shaped and molded
by who we are, by from where we came,
by the question mark of where we are today.
Notice the little hand
that clutches the blanket, so perfectly
formed, sculpted by love and
the grace of God, the hand which someday
perhaps will cover with a blanket
her own baby girl and remember the moments
when she was young and knew
even in her sleep that mama was there.
Reach down and the fingers
so tiny,
so fragile yet so strong in their quiet slumbered love,
unconsciously wrap around mine
and transmit pulse through my body,
circling, snaking, dancing through me
with a warmth that runs from my heart
to my womb, and reminds me of the bond
that will connect us for as long as she lives.
Tip-toe from her
room and return to mine,
slip between the blankets lest I rouse him
from his rest, although I wouldn’t mind,
for at this moment it would be wonderful
to disappear into a small nested universe
where twined beneath the lullaby of the rain
we would remember the miracle
from which she came.
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