I'll do what I can

What You Have What I Give


My hands search for you like a ghost in your crib
Find your head, bless your hair over your ear
As you dream in the humid dark, your cheek
Warm like a tamale, rubbery moist, kissed
Cushioned ample, tender plum cheek

You exhausted me, intense one, from your screaming today
You enchanted me, bold son, as you eyed me
Two and a half year old sage; you said,
“Sometimes people don’t like people.”  Sometimes
I squint in the dark, awaiting a lesson you have for me

I give you a future of ten billion people, an empire
In decline, of wars you will own, economies flooded
Environment bedraggled. You will not do as we have
Done.  It’s a small world after all
Is finally sinking in. 

But I’ll do what I can for you, Ben Muir,
Though I cannot see your breathing, my breathing
Fused, your cheek, again kissed,
Cicadas out there, laying waste to the silence
Awaiting a lesson you have for me