I have so many wishes for you little one. But you will make your own wishes. So today I ask these things for you.
May you grow in grace and truth, in wisdom and in love.
May you have a humble, teachable spirit and a compassionate heart.
May you be blessed with common sense, good humor and fun, and a love of life.
You’ll need patience and a forgiving spirit too, especially being the little brother.
But above all these things the most we can hope for, is for you to be your own true self.
To take all the gifts that you were born with and make them marvels of beauty and ingenuity and astonishment.
You are so new to this, and for now you are content with such a little world, discovering the air, the light and the blur of faces.
But everyday expands your universe and I promise to share your joy.
I promise to get down on my knees and examine the ants in the dirt;
I promise to find the amazement in a shaft of sunlight, in a bird, in a fish, and a coloured puddle.
I promise to see the humour when you apply oodles of mud and paint on your freshly dressed little body.
I promise to understand your determined opposition to the order of things in general, for ever doing the wrong thing, at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and in the wrong way…because it isn’t wrong at all, it’s just your way.
And as you grow older, I promise that no biting, stinging word of mine, no inadvertent word of bitterness or sarcasm, jealousy or malice, will poison or diminish the joyous, loving, laughing gift I have in you.

At least, I promise to try.

I promise to always be here when you need me, as long as you need me, as comfort, refuge, breathing space, and as a non-judgmental ear.
I promise to care for you, and protect you from harm until you are grown, and then I promise I will let you fly free.

But loving you - I will do all my life.

A promise of sunsets
a dream that came true
and all of the wishes
I caught here for you
my first born, my cherub
my blue-eyed child
I sought out your name
from the wet and the wild

Be free mommy's faery
don't forget who you are
you're as precious and rare
as a gold shooting star
and when people wonder
about what I called you
tell them you're as tranquil
as Kariba is blue.

A whisper of water
falling on skin
mirrored with rainbows
when the sun gets let in
you may be the second
child that I named
but you're as fiery and passionate
as a forest untamed

My imp, my changeling
my brown-eyed dream
you're the eclipse of the sun
with a dewy moonbeam
Be happy my pixie
live up to your name
be as warm and as gentle
as the first summer rain

At the edge the earth cracks
burning amber and azure blue
high on the world here
above the clouds
my memory caresses
sweet thoughts of you!

Your hair the shade of a raven's back
your eyes like pools of gold
your smile as tender as a baby's touch
leave a thousand truths untold

Your hands, the creator
of strength and warmth
your taste, so bitter sweet
your scent lingers lovingly
in places where we'd meet.

Smiling now I realise
I'll always belong to you
Not because you made me stay
but because I wanted to

The graveyard seems so empty as I move amongst the dead
ivy nestles to the rock above someone's final bed
The words upon the tombstone burrows deep into my mind
I trace the crippling letters not sure of what I'll find....

The Epitaph is written, in this , our final call
the justice of the sinners lies embossed on rotting walls
words that lay upon the stone become the texture of a life
just twenty words to tell a tale, is this the basic price?

I hear the silent echo coming somewhere deep within
is this my final hour or the birth of all my sin?
What words would people put here and raise above my head
to resemble all that I once was to console me when I'm dead?

What tragedy will bring me here to have my concluding rest?
will all the ones that stay behind realise it was a lonely quest
would words that bide here chiselled into cold and bitter rock
say everything I need to say but know that I cannot?

My Epitaph is nothing it remains a blank grey slate
I haven't seen the fires of hell, no chance at heaven's gate
But the words upon my tombstone are ready for the grail
'tis time to draw the curtain
and hammer the saving nail

What did you leave there under the tree?
a gift for a loved one?
a present for me?
what will I find there
if I undid the bow?
(maybe it's safer that I do not know!)

You hand me the box wrapped up in red
the look in your eyes
all wasted and dead
still I open the parcel you place in my hands
a gift for a person
you can't understand!

And out come your wishes
your dreams and desires
I watch them grow lifeless
and finally expire
So thanks for the present
but I can't accept it you see
it's not the kind of gift
I would've given to me

You peel away my human skin
to expose the form inside
not allowing me to crawl away
to that place it's safe to hide.

You touch my waking spirit
with your sense of make believe
not allowing in the splinters
of the place I go to grieve.

You breathe an air of wisdom
into a heart of melted ice
and warm the coldest corners
without telling me the price.

You hold me in your layers
absorbing shadows of my soul
by needing me to keep you close
you somehow make me whole.

I promise I'm forever
I cannot go away
for I am but a flower
in the garden where you play.