Spirits soar and marvel!
For you and Life have brought life itself.

Hug me, love me, squeeze me, treat me tenderly--
and protect. . .for my harm, is yours.

Days pass. I grow.
As Life is, and you are, so I become.

"Beautiful child! . . . just like you.",
echo words of others. Beam with pride.
I am what you always knew you could be,
but never were.

Yet see in me traits you cannot stand
in yourself, and shudder.

And of your partner, strong traces there;
an eternal bond grown stronger still.

As the two of you in one I move outward
and inward--my world becomes me.

You see in me both what you have,
and have not known of yourselves complete--

Mirror image;
your child.

Written Summer 1987