-- What a Baby Knows --

John Herlihy

What does a baby know,

Everything, nothing to know.

Everything it needs to know,

But nothing it need not know.

Babies need not know how to talk;

They find other ample ways to balk.

Babies need not anything explain;

They work on a far different plain.

They coo, laugh, scream and shout.

Get what they want; if not, they pout.

They don’t need use of subtle words;

They merely chirp like happy birds.

As for love, you can take it from me;

Infants are in love with all they see.

Their faces register their inner hearts;

Their smiles always break us into parts.

Babies need no practical sense of money,

Tear a dollar bill and they think it’s funny.

Nor do they care where they rest their head,

On a pillow, in a basket, under a blanket in bed.

What about all the things babies do know;

What needs no explanation, they simply glow.

Again, did anyone ever tell them how to love?

They know things instinctively, come from above.

Glorious feelings implicit in a sense of trust,

Held, carried, laid down, as all others must.

Their world a bursting bubble of sheer delight,

As they pass thru the shades of day and night.

Feed me, love me, protect me as you care.

I will love you in return, into your eyes stare.

I will never betray you, leave you high and dry;

You are my mother/father, a good reason why.

Fear not, I know all that I will ever need to know,

And will try to forego what I never need to know.

If I should find I know what I never need to know,

I hope to cast it aside, like a child, never to know.

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(c) John Herlihy 7 May 2020