Daily Poem

A Poem for David


Sometimes when you’re sleeping
You look like a little boy
And I can imagine
You at 6 or 12

Coming back from your school day
Bringing back a half empty lunch box
Maybe you didn’t eat the crust
Maybe you left the veggies
Maybe you traded your bologna sandwich
For something prepackaged
And delicious
But I know better
and won’t project on all the things
I had dared to do
as a child

sometimes I see your family
in the outlines of your face
then
I see something that is distinctly yours
The long gait
The mind that came from
Your own hard work
And persistence

There is something so boyish
Even when you type away
And I
Spying from behind
Stealing glances of the man
I see every day

I wonder if a day will come
When I will stop discovering you
When you will become familiar
And unsurprising
Like a soft, known
Worn in chair

Like the one
I sank in
The one
Too small for you
But still
Your favorite

Like the boy
Who I saw last night
And this morning

Or maybe
I will keep discovering you
Even when
I am not looking.