terrypetersen

GRANDCHILD NUMBER THREE 

Truth lifts the heart like water refreshes thirst. (Rumi)

Black and white image
a face    an arm within a blurred arc    a girl
her parents     with their big blue eyes
envision bright blue charm progressing
within that growing face

Grandma decides
she’ll be a blonde like Mommy
with her keen insight    
earn an MBA like Daddy
or    perhaps discover a cure for disease
challenge the world of sports

but truth appears on the film
a flaw     or so it would seem
the twenty-first chromosome triples instead of doubles
one surgery promised at birth
a second four months later

the first will strike her gut     the second her heart
Baby’s body develops within Mommy 
as Baby’s outside world 
grasps truth    embraces it
small hands    double jointed
blue eyes    maybe   that seek    observe
belong to a spirit as sacred as any in
a world dubbed normal

as Baby’s parents and grandparents and friends 
open their own guts 
allowing no room for anything less 
than wonder 
and it arrives within her spirit