The day you were born I don’t remember

                                    If it was warm or not,

                                    If the sun shone

                                    Or rain

                                    Slashed across a sky

                                    Obscured

                                    By pain and doubt.

                                    But I know

                                    That I held you

                                    For hours, stared at you

                                    In awe—

                                    And felt the warmth assault me,

                                    Felt all the old, forgotten smiles

                                    Creep back—

                                    Until I wasn’t sure

                                    Which of us

                                    Had just been born.

                                                                        --Leslie P. García

                                                                             copyright 1984