Blessing
Blessing
- for my daughter, Eva
Baruch ha shame, yame, yame
(``Blessed be the Lord from day to day'')
Halfway between child and girl,
you stretch your now-long legs
the length of the sofa,
raise one hand over your head
and announce, again, ``I'm bored.''
But books are becoming your friends,
and summer mornings, when time permits,
we read on the sofa, side by side.
I relish the back and forth of your eyes
on the page, your ponytail spread
like gossamer in sunlight.
Soon you will ask for breakfast,
but now, two thumbs holding
your page in place, you read.
Sun cascades through the window.
Your brown hair sparkles with flashes
of red, as mine did when I was a kid.
I think of the generations of our lives -
wish you increased joy,
more grace,
more ease.
As we read, I catch your eyes
looking up at mine. They glimmer
in a way that makes me remember
the ``Baruch ha shame, yame, yame''
my grandfather used to say
reminding me, once again
of the blessings of this,
of every day.