Poem: Expectations #the100dayproject Day 73

I've been invited to a co-worker's baby shower and this is where my mind went...

Expectations 

There is something sinister in a gender reveal 

as if all of this time the parents have waited 

only to know the sex of their child, 

as if knowing the gender makes the child real, 

makes all of the gifts at the baby shower 

fitting to that child’s expected trajectory, 

there is something comforting and lazy, 

as if it is the beginning of a path laid down, 

that there is no ground to break 

when that child enters the world. 

I always hope that the gender will be different, 

not at all what they have come to expect, 

to unsettle the settled, to riffle the calm, sure waters. 

I hope that they do not get what they’ve told the world, 

instead I hope they will bring home their little girl 

into a nursery filled with blue walls, crib and dresser, 

I hope every outfit, turns their little girl blue. 

And when they walk their daughter in the stroller, 

all of the strangers and neighbors will bend down 

and say, “He looks so strong like his daddy.”