We didn’t know.
We didn’t know
That you were born
To bounce that baby in your arms--
Blissfully besotted by her charms:
Love-struck, attracted, distracted, disarmed--
The soundtrack of your life transformed
By a batch of brand new songs--
Mostly about poop. 

We didn’t know

That kids your age
Could so command a stage
As poets, drummers,
Jokers, jesters,
Shy almost-singers,
Tiny light-bringers,
And a pink-clad, pint-size Feist. 

We didn’t know you’d be the one
Exposing that part of your molten heart
To everyone--
Composure gone and dignity undone
Just by the morning sun on her face.
Lost in a song you’ve sung for thirty years.
The first time ever you felt her grace
You knew she was the one. 

We didn’t know. 

Your smiling face.
A morning stretch.
We didn’t know there was
A sacred place awaiting
Every mother stressed and stretched
By so many wants and needs and requests
By so many others.
And room for Gavin, too.

We didn’t know your solemn, grown-up face
Would taste one S’more,
And light up like the sparklers in your hands.
You twirled like a planet, like a star, like a galaxy
So far from every care
That every inch of every muscle in your smile
Brought you back to being that child
You thought you left behind. 

Big, small, under two and over sixty--
We never knew we could all be Swifties
‘Til you blew our minds
And brought us to our knees.
But please, don’t ask us to believe
We’re never, ever, ever
Getting back together again.
That just can’t be true. 

We didn’t know.

 We didn’t know our dancing parent woes--
Tripping on toddler toes and|
Dodging wobbly do-si-dos--would disappear
When the big kids came
To whisk the little ones away
And lead them laughing ‘round the squares.

We didn’t know you’d be so brave--
To stretch and grow across
That broad expanse of can’ts
And shouldn’ts, old remembered couldn’ts
Deep as canyons, wide as cratered dreams--
To bridge that span,
To stand where you’ve never stood,
And see what you’ve never seen. 

And you, little girl,
Just eight months in this world--
We didn’t know you’d show us
What it looks like through your eyes:
Opened wide to everything so now and new
That every face that draws your gaze
Is graced by your nearly toothless smile
And your look of wonder, wider than a mile. 

We didn’t know.

How could we possibly know
That in coming to this place
So much of what we thought we knew
Would be erased--replaced by something better
Than anywhere our pale imaginations
Ever let us go?

We just didn’t know.

— Spoken Word Poetry Class, 2023