Boy
Brandie trent
When I follow your round toddlerness
up thirteen household stairsteps,
my hear is a silent trumpet.
You go, gorilla like,
humped over, arms dangling,
climbing exotic new trees
My hands are yellow butterfly wings
spread wide and fluttering
around your broad infant shoulders
riding the high winds of pride
Today you are a champion architect of towers
Today you are the rainbow music of a circus train
Today you are the incubating pearls of velvet oceans
Today you are a brave brown sparrow in my selfish grip
You are the blue eye sky
Let me fly across your horizon
so I may longer live
and extend my reach, my long aching stretch for foreverness
and continue my sweet shiny apple days of a more perfect time
Let me teach you to howl in midnight emergency sirens
Let me give you keys to doors
Let me photograph your genius for
other lands
other words
other mothers
to observe
Let me sing the celebratory anthem of boys things
dirty pink skin, nighttime bubble baths, ritual water dances,
scattered wooden train cars, orphaned sock
bumpy bruises, clapping hands, first kisses,
and simple climbs up simple stairs
up thirteen household stairsteps,
my hear is a silent trumpet.
You go, gorilla like,
humped over, arms dangling,
climbing exotic new trees
My hands are yellow butterfly wings
spread wide and fluttering
around your broad infant shoulders
riding the high winds of pride
Today you are a champion architect of towers
Today you are the rainbow music of a circus train
Today you are the incubating pearls of velvet oceans
Today you are a brave brown sparrow in my selfish grip
You are the blue eye sky
Let me fly across your horizon
so I may longer live
and extend my reach, my long aching stretch for foreverness
and continue my sweet shiny apple days of a more perfect time
Let me teach you to howl in midnight emergency sirens
Let me give you keys to doors
Let me photograph your genius for
other lands
other words
other mothers
to observe
Let me sing the celebratory anthem of boys things
dirty pink skin, nighttime bubble baths, ritual water dances,
scattered wooden train cars, orphaned sock
bumpy bruises, clapping hands, first kisses,
and simple climbs up simple stairs