For Charlotte, On Her Third Birthday

You master work of living art,
You beautiful
immortal
merry-hearted girl,

Today three years into
eternity:

I pray
Your treasures multiply with every passing day
Until day breaks and shadows flee away.

What’s inside a word?

Have you ever felt – listening –

the romance of the

jasper

or the simple severity of

obsidian?

DeathtoStock_Medium8

In days of waiting like these
I pick up books, not for challenge or escape,

But to be sung to.

I am a fruit tree ripening

with child.

flowerswaitingonchair