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.”
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