With Care
(10/28/05)
Regard me as you would
A tender green sapling
Whose thready young roots
Cling to soil
cup me ginger
Tender in your palms
So i will survive
transplant
With buds intact
And feel as rooted
As a groundless sapling
Can feel
Treat me as you would
A beloved eggshell
Painted in third grade
For mother’s day
By your eldest child
Now 19
Con cuidado
Your very touch
Somber
in awe
Of my delicate
Watercolored frailty
Consider me as you would
a paper canoe
You will to float across the lake
Fold and crease me
With precision of care
With attention to symmetry
Balance
Send me off with that gentle push
Into the light breeze
So that I may make it
To the other side
By the very force of your tenderness.