Relatively easy
to determine the causes
of fatigue
that brought my child
to my lap for the duration
of the service
Less easy to know
how to hold myself
with this being
whose size and shape
did not conform to my idea
of how big she would be
when people ask her now
how old she is
she sometimes says Bigger
which is what I often say
as if that explains how
already she is many
ages at once
ready to slink off to sleep
in my too weary arms
or run down the hallway
as if for a marathon
at what should be bedtime
or lulled by a Taizé tune
the same one we would sing
in her earliest nights
the voices in unison today
conducive in the way
she stayed asleep on my lap
I wanted to stay
Joshua Keiter 