An Open Letter To My Infant Son

Oh Ethan my lad, my boy, my child
You sprang from the void, naked and wild
You screamed and you drooled and you squirmed and you howled
Oh Ethan my lad, my boy my child.

You laugh at the walls and you cry at the sun
You chew on your fist, your feet and your tongue
Your world is a prism, your mind is undone
A loose ball of yarn yet to be spun

But I can see in your eyes, on your lips, in your gums
The tears and the laughter and the teeth that will come
As the world it weaves you and knots you and heaves you
Into the man that you will become
Oh Ethan my cherub, my terror, my son.

And the future it lurks as much as it shines
It beckons and threatens with wisdom and lies
So welcome dear creature to the river of time
Where you don’t have to swim (although you will try)

No the current will bring you to the end of alive
Where I will be waiting to give you high fives
We will laugh at the games that we played and we’ll try
With furrowed brows and smiles in our eyes
To remember what could possibly made us have cried
As we struggled along through the mystery of life

Then we’ll kick up our heels and settle right in
As the universe punches and kneads us back in
To the dough that we came from, where this story begins.