Today I honor the anniversary of my youngest sister’s birth with a poem I drafted exactly one year ago. Happy birthday, dearest Julie, and may you enjoy many happy returns of the day!
For my sister on her birthday
Pulled from bed to witness
that giant leap, I think of you in grainy images
of one small step and boot prints, a watershed
moment on a waterless world
Hours later you arrived
with police escort, crossed the dangerous
void into life, a tiny explorer setting foot
from watery darkness into cold light
Crabby moon baby
that you are, you sidestep
through perilous tides of molting and shape
fantastic structures from the flotsam
left by receding waves
Remember that the combers will always roll you
back to shore no matter where
the current takes you, sure as labor
pains, steady as the moon’s
compulsive ebb and flow
The Daily Compost 