my voice breaks a little
on the highest verse of shri ram
as your arm stirs the air, brushing my
beard with one tiny hand in the dark
you are the surest weight I've ever held
and we are rocking slowly while I sing,
every shifting moment presses your body into mine
as you mutter and yawn
it's as if there could be nothing else, anywhere
forgetting that there are dishes in the sink
and a world outside struggling to be reborn
it was only half a year ago that you lay in your crib
grasping my forearm with your whole body
while I wiggled you to sleep
as if there could be anything else, ever
but your cooing then has faded from my ears now,
and the marks of your small form will leave my lap someday empty.
I slip away with a forehead kiss between verses
but I am not left so vacant
the gentle sway in this chair is not our last
and who is to say which moment
impossibly, could be everything, always
it must be this one, now