Poems That Came From a Beanstalk

Baby Hope

Baby girl

Inside Mom's tummy

We're all so

Excited to meet you

We take turns saying names

I wanted Tinker Bell

Little sister

With the big brown eyes

She named you Hope

Because you're her sunshine

I like to think my name stuck

Because your first one is Bella

Smaller one

With the pink wire glasses

You have a gap 

Between your two front teeth

Your bangs are chopped and uneven

Most adorable thing I've ever seen

Bella Hope

With the skinny bones, blond hair

Barbies and Play-Do

We fill our days with these things

Search and find books, Polly Pockets

Our brother's Legos spilled across the carpet

My sunshine

Mom thought you were hers

But your brightness

Has filled my days too

Your little hand, sticky and warm

Always holding mine when I say to 

Little sister

Ever since your first day at school

I've been your protector

You were always the most important

More than Mom, more than Dad

More than the others; more than me

Baby sis

I've scolded you relentlessly

And held you down

As you kicked and scratched and screamed

A big brat, you were

But you were also my big brat

Growing girl

Let's ride our bikes around the neighborhood

And train you up

For a new year of soccer

I can spray you with the hose 

And you can run through the rainbows

Preteen Sassifrass

You're hair is getting so long

And you're heading to sixth grade

You still wave at Mom and kiss her goodbye

That's good, you need to do that

But you head off alone now

Teenage wonder

You grew up while I've been away

I'm no longer your guardian

Those don't leave

You can march and play better than me

You know what the bad things mean

Bella Hope

I still have dreams of you, and quite honestly

I figured you'd fade with the rest of them

But I only have ever missed you more every day

Your smile comes back to me at night 

When the world goes still and gray

Baby Hope

I only see you every now and then

And just like the rest of them

Soon enough I won't even know you

Then, one day you'll wake up with Mom

To find that I'm gone, perhaps for a very long time

And, Little one

I hope you know that I love you forever

And when you're in the dark places

Remember that you are the sunshine

That lights up my nightmares 

And that you've been my greatest love