Gloria Jane was born May 30, 2019. I wrote the first poem in the Spring of 2018 as Sarah and I began to take seriously the possibility of becoming parents, the second during the third trimester, and the third on our final getaway before our daughter was born. Imagining Gloria was written on a hunch that we were having a girl.

 

Future Prospects

There will be little sleep
With tears and a self that
Rightly wanes in diminishing
Returns. But there will also be
Speckled sunlight and grass
And your mother in chase
Full to the brim.

 

On Movement 

We felt you rolling last night
In gale force and tidal pull
What a stormy sight you’ll be
If uterine squalls forecast  
Weather on the way.

 

Imagining Gloria

Will your face look like her’s
when you sleep, peaceful,
twice-pillowed on material
graces, gentle like the glory
you were named for?
Will your voice sound like her’s
when you speak, pleasant,
kindly syllables sentenced
to most always ever bless
those sent upon?
Will your hand feel like her’s
when I hold it, slight-soft,
trustworthy in mine trusting
hands holding more than
we imagine?