At Your Birth
Your life spills out before me
like the perfect, unmarked
yolk from a cracked brown egg.
How I wish I could keep you
that way, unbroken, unsullied,
uneaten by this world,
but I can only hope
that you come through your
life, not so bruised, not so
battered, and as near perfect
as you are on this day!
And that I pray for, whether I’m
there to see it
or not!