By Your Side

Watching you sleep Your eyelids flickering in the lamplight of a dream Your tiny hands clutching the blanket The air passing so effortlessly In and out of your lungs I wonder who you are And who you will be How will you get from here to there? Will you succeed where we have failed? I see the obstacles that await The things we do to the innocent child Know there are no easy answers, but Somehow you must survive. What power I have is but To give you my love And a wish you might fulfill this life That you've been granted With hope and courage to overcome The travails that surely will beset you. As I tuck you in, brush your hair I know I shall always remember this moment Treasure it as the first we truly shared You and I Quiet in its contemplation, serene in the Acceptance of what must be. But you will never know, sleeping as you are What passed here between us. Perhaps as you grow older You will learn That that is often the way of love— Silences too deep for words to touch Sometimes remote and unrecognized Still, even when you doubt it most It's there. ~ Laurence Overmire