Notes About The Poem
I once attended a wedding where a speaker told the happy couple that there is no school for parenthood. I was inclined to agree with him but a part of me kept saying that nature is meticulous and therefore could not leave us unprepared for such an important function as parenthood on which the prosperity of life depends. And the thought came out of the blue that nature probably tricks parents into behaving like babies so that they learn baby care through their companionship.
Big Baby
The look, the laugh, and the loves of a coming baby,
None ever foretells: not dad, not mum, not the world.
But its manners--now that's never a surprise!
It shows in its parents,
Planted in them perhaps by God,
That mum in dad's big baby self
And dad in mum's big baby self
May find the lessons of little baby care.
It's their baby selves out on schooling duty
When expectant mum lists a thousand craves
And dad, for his part, won't clean up after himself:
Little Nancy is on her way;
Through mum comes notice of her thousand wish lists,
And through dad notice of her messy ways,
Their little world to ready for its little guest.
It's still their baby selves on schooling duty
When expectant mum waxes petulant
And dad oft waxes helpless till sweet mum's about
the house:
Little Tommy is a-coming;
Through mum he sends notice of his fragile temper
And through dad notice of his mama need.
Yes, there're parts of us that must babies be if sometime
we'll parents be:
A side of me and a side of you.
Not by our wish but by Heaven's design
We model the baby to come,
Each other to ready for its entry
With storm and stars into this our world.
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