Child

Here's a poem I wrote Sunday while I was sitting on the stand at church.

"Child"

A brightness
this birth
into another place
and time
starts its ticking
an accounting
or a gift
a sentence
passed
before a crime can be committed.
I wait
the uneasy father
witness to
a travail
I have no power to stay.
You pause
a thing of fearful
ugly beauty
then
a breath
a cry
a plea.
Life begins anew
my heart
your heart
my blood
your blood
a seedling god
in my trembling
mortal hands.