At last.

For My Daughter in Reply to a Question

David Ignatow

We're not going to die,
we'll find a way
We'll breathe deeply
and eat carefully
We'll think always on life,
There'll be no fading for you or for me.
We'll be the first
and we'll not laugh at ourselves ever
and your children will be my grandchildren.
Nothing will have changed
except by addition.
There'll never be another as you
and never another as I.
No one ever will confuse you
nor confuse me with another.
We will not be forgotten and passed over
and buried under the births and deaths to come.

I'm looking down at my sleeping daughter. Moments ago, I was holding this tiny, perfect person in my amazed and clumsy fingers, marveling in this miracle that is a baby.

I think I'm better prepared this time, that my fears are not as overwhelming as they were with Travis. I still think of the countless opportunities I have to screw up her life, or make it into something wonderful, and wonder filled. I really want to make this world a world of possibilities for my children. More than anything else I would like them to see the world through the eyes of children, all of their years. What a world we would have if we could all keep that sense of wonder about us. The curiosity that swirls about them, could save us all if only we could all hang on to it.

But right now, our daughter is asleep, at home, at last. My fears ebb and grow, but I know, deep down that with her and Travis here, the world is a much, much better place.