CHILD OF THE WATER

CHILD OF THE WATER (for Valerie)

My child of the water, brought forth in the secret billows of desire, spilling your thin red cries over the boundaries of my untraveled imagination… I have come to love Your body, your eyes, You, Your dream-mother’s dream

O, little pumpkin, My sparrow of a child, Nine months you sailed in my belly-boat, clasped in that long swell, gathering to yourself in the blackening waves horizons of bones and soul-. I rejoiced in that rooting, renewing your life daily, folding its time like some long hidden laundry; but I knew you and you were mine.

Darling, in the midst of October, that dying month, the month of leaves, you burst forth soft as a velvet eucharist washed in God’s gladness, and joy, oh joy, sprouted everywhere.

Today, outside In the half-asleep meadows Something grows green, and I hold you wrapped in my arms like a pulsating puppy not knowing who you are-or why.

O, funny fish, Swimming through every part of me, sail your own harbors, launch your own dreams, fly to the sun, one day you will not be mine anymore.

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