Newborn

I saw you and I thought, "Well, this

Will make me feel one of two ways.

First, that I am justly afraid

Of having one like you, and second,

That I will want nothing but

To have one of you for my own."

But neither feeling came.
Instead, I felt

A kinship in the way you slept

And woke

And slept so fitfully,

Flinging yourself unprompted

To and fro, and hardly rested

Much at all.

And so I thought, "How could this 

Be so, when you are only

One month into life and have no 

History that keeps you from 

Resting peacefully?"

I wanted you to feel the peace

That I have never felt, and I

Was more disturbed

By the nagging, self-imposed fact

That you, untainted, restlessly

Could find no comfort in the arms

Of those who loved you endlessly

And showered love and love and love

And still you cried --

With a mere month inscribed into your empty book --

So inconsolably.