Baby Walker Poems

Running Down the Driveway

RUNNING DOWN THE DRIVEWAY

Three running down the driveway in delight
Or two racing around in one baby walker  near the fence
Or one practising the piano  at night :
They  were the end reason for my privileged existence.

In the garden  planting and sheltering flowers  from the hot sun,
And the struggle with the tree in the wind, with  ropes securing it,
And her reading lessons from school made bright with  fun, 
And the two boys making a soft place for the cat  to sit  -

Outshine all the places I’ve been, people I’ve  known.
Successes I’ve had:  they  are nothing.  All the achieving:
Absolutely nothing.  Compared with the memory of those three  -  now grown  - 
Running down the driveway when I came home  in the evening.

And how they started to look like their parents, girl or boy, 
In such sparkling  and unpredictable ways
Churns up my soul with feelings of  thanks  and joy,
Against which brightness all else dims throughout my days.

Being their father  is the greatest privilege, for which I would gladly pay. 
At the end  I will wish for nothing  except the pleasure to be 
Once again there and see them running down the driveway
Laughing, shouting, flinging  six arms around me.