Poetry Wednesday, Vol. 76 (a little early)

Stay Little Always

Jessie Corrigan Pegis


Stay little always, do not ever grow
Beyond the loving measure of my hand.
Already you have lost that soft pink glow
Which you brought with you to this strange new land.

Stay little always, do not turn your wide
Blue eyes on this tall world beyond your reach.
Learn not our language it is harsh beside
The little ripples of your wordless speech.

This was a moment's thought, idle and fleet;
There where the bud is, soon the flower appears,
But oh, you are so little and so sweet,
Where can I hide you from the rush of years?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

As you read this, we will be happily loving on our newest nephew, Kenneth Enoch, I think they are calling him Enoch, and his three older sisters. They live in El Paso and we don't see them nearly enough. Growing up, all of my extended relatives were in far off places like "Michigan" and "Des Moines" and "Warrenton" - and it didn't bother me too much. We had our friends who were very much family in Mexico. But now that I have a little family of my own I long for them to know their cousins. Not just "know" them in some far-off, those are relatives that I know I should love but really I just feel kind of uncomfortable around them kind of way, but in a deep loving friendship kind of way.

Time, distance, money, there are so many reasons we are not able to see each other as often as we would like. Which makes me so grateful for the Internet and blogs. We can watch their faces, we can see a window into their lives. We can see snippets of life in Pennsylvania, Texas and Mexico. They don't make up for the real thing, but they are better than nothing.

So starting Tuesday night all the way through Saturday we will be holding a baby as much as possible (and you know, Josie loves those babies - she would hold them even while they are nursing, which makes the mamas feel weird, but there you go), playing with sweet girls and loving every minute we can be with family.

Have a great week, all of you!