'To the Child in My Friend's Arms' by David Hay

Looking into your loving eyes

unwavering in their visionary gaze,

the heart’s questions are satisfied.

Minds too long deadened by necessities,

by the morning’s defeat are revived.

Your hands not sculptured by language’s hammer

grasp at the hour’s substance.

You are boundless,

your thoughts stretch beyond boarders or doctrines,

you act without the tyranny of reflection.

I feel all my years of self-indulgent introspection

that hollowed out my brain,

carried away by the currents of your breath

now two days old.

I hold you in my arms and fear I will drop you.

I imagine you on the hospital floor,

your hungry mouth full of blood,

and me the murderer,

the killer of innocence’s form.

In needless fear I glance at the woman holding up my life.

She smiles and the images cease.

I stare into your swollen eyes.

You are the first baby I have ever held.

and now I understand that you

are every word’s unspoken desire.

The song of the sparrow and the river deep moving

propel your thoughts through each seasons’

altering rhythm.

Copyright. David Hay.

David Hay is an English Teacher in the Northwest of England. He has written poetry and prose since the age of 18 when he discovered Virginia Woolf's The Waves and the poetry of John Keats. These and other artists encouraged him to seek his own poetic voice. He has currently been accepted for publication in Dreich, Abridged, Acumen, The Honest Ulsterman, The Dawntreader, Versification, The Babel Tower Notice Board, The Stone of Madness Press, The Fortnightly Review, The Lake, Selcouth Station, GreenInk Poetry, Dodging the Rain, The Morning Star as well as The New River Press 2020 Anthology. His debut publication is the Brexit-inspired prose-poem Doctor Lazarus published by Alien Buddha Press 2021.