Nineteen

Nineteen years ago,
We were introduced.
Though you squirmed to escape
The forceps that drew you into the world,
Your arrival was wrapped in silence.
And for a few moments in that eerie calm,
My heart beat wildly as a nurse grasped my palm.

Behind the curtain wrestling life from death
While they worked to elicit your first breath,
I held my breath with you.

Nineteen years ago,
My world nestled in the crook of an arm.
Now, you stand before me,
Those years of awkward growth,
Of heart, and mind. and body done.
Your battle to adulthood won.
And my heart beats wildly with pride,
Even as it echoes in the emptiness of my arms.

It’s a strange sense of loss and gain,
Awash once more in love and pain,
To watch a child become a man.