Life in a Nutshell

There's My Baby

Originally Written 2008

I sort of hear this as a song in my head, but I have no idea what that would look like so it's a poem.

A poem that came to me about thirteen years ago while I was walking home from work. It arrived on a soft summer evening, as I loitered and hummed and dawdled by the railroad tracks. I was wasting time, looking at flowers and weeds that bordered the greenway path I was on.

I thought I might have been pregnant. I was happy and the words leaked out.

There's my baby.

When I was a young girl, walking home from school, my daddy, he'd meet me at the front door.
He'd pick me up and twirl me. Hold me close and whirl me and I'd hear him say...

There's my baby. How you doin' my baby? Did you have a good day at school? Did you miss me at all?

A few years later, I met my true love in college. We're the closest to perfect that I'd ever see. He'd hold my hand and touch me, walk me home and kiss me. He kept me close and made my dreams feel real, and I hear him say...

There's my baby. How you doin' my baby? Did you have a good day at school? Did you miss me at all?

Now I have a young one of my own and I do all the things a good mama should. When he comes home, I meet him at the front door. I pick him up and twirl him, hold him close and whirl him, and he hears me say...

There's my baby. How you doin' my baby? Did you have a good day at school? Did you miss me at all?

When it's my turn to go. When my body is done and this time is ended. When I meet the one who made me, who reached out and saved me. When I see the one who has guided and stayed me all these long years, I hope I hear him say...

There's my baby. How you doin' my baby? Did you have a good day at school? Did you miss me at all?