unborn baby I yearned for you in my empty belly like someone hiding his tears in a pillow I blended the bitter yeast of life with tender wheat sap to make you grow proud and strong to be born in a cypress shade
my child I swayed you on my arms like a rising sun ending with burnt shoulders in a ragged cloth I slept with my temple over flint stones sipped water from summer tempests fed on wild blackberry in order to raise you
I baptized you with an old name in the spring water under a cross I wiped your front with untouched grasses bringing you up to the sky on my palms and cleansed back to my chest
my son I promise you that you shall have the fast horse fed on embers that the red and the green kings shall make peace that forests shall grow bigger and golden fields taller as far as you’ll remember me under your feet