Child

Prancing in front of you
This elf child
Showing off her differences from you
Her fierce love
She engages in every moment
Full tilt
While you look on in wonderment
At this child, this child
Unlike any other
She is an original creation
Made to stand
Unique
Watch at what she can do,
Little mama
She is all yours
But teaching you,
Like the brilliance of a fireburst,
To observe her antics and her seriousness
With love but not like.

To beth from her friend jana watching from the sidelines of the raising of a girl. June 2004, written on the drive to Memphis after beth had given me wedding shoes and her first daughter had danced in front of us in her multi colored striped pajama pants, tottering in these same shoes