For my baby

You move
from unidentified to recognized
unfamiliar to familiar
as you discover hands, I discover a seeking
as you breathe your unspoken complaints
I discover potency
strength to equal your tenderness;
unnamed infant
how like me you are,
loved but lost
found but undiscovered;
little child I've a blanket for you
a heart that's yours, now and always
and that, little girl
is all I own
a cradle poorly made,
a desire to learn.
Teacher,
who knows not that she informs
tell me things:
about innocence
it's fragrance and recovery,
about unconditional love,
about growing up
without losing your name,
tell me how your heart beats
how innocence throbs through veins,
breathe into me
the breezes of your baby existence
and cure me of the weariness
that has invaded and remains.  

[This was written on November 10, 2003, less than two months after my little girl was born]