Footsteps (poem)

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Footsteps



Lullabyes and midnight cries
Your tiny fingers wrapped in theirs,
Big eyes that see a perfect world
Free of fears and cares.

Playpens, cribs and plastic bibs
Mommy at your beckon call,
Constant service, daddy's nervous
Are they ready for it all?

First smile, first laugh, first words and steps
Crayons, books and blocks,
Pee-pee dance in training pants
Cupboards with child-proof locks.

Climbing trees and scraping knees
A world of endless wonder,
Ask mommy why the sky is blue
And what makes rain and thunder.

Soon grade-school books and awkward looks
Bring crushes, broken hearts and then,
A high school dance, chance for romance
And love finds you again.

Praying, hoping, back seat groping
Finally leaving home,
She wears your shirts, toothbrush on your sink,
A pillow next to your own.

Next years bring a wedding ring
And with a new heartbeat your family grows,
The love of your life about to give you another
More beautiful each day as she shows.

Find yourselves in a hospital room
Holding her hand, words loving and warm,
The pain and the tears fulfill a dream held for years
As this precious creation is born.

Lullabyes and midnight cries
Mommy at her beckon call,
Constant service and you're both nervous...

Are you ready for it all?

On Paper Wings

One day perhaps
I’ll write all my secrets down
On sepia paper,
Fold them into an airplane
And set them free off the coast of Spain.
Or France.
No who am I kidding,
It would have to be Australia.

Always Australia.

My hopes, dreams and fears
Would be carried
Upon these fragile wings
Every crease a soul I’ve met,
Some buried deeper within the page
Than others.
To whomever finds it,
You’ll be in there somewhere.

Maybe I’ll write
All these secrets as a song
With no particular melody,
Just verse.
And if by chance
This song
Finds its way to you
Unfold it carefully
And sing me.