Toes Like Little Peas

Changing Diapers
-Gary Snyder

How intelligent he looks!
on his back
both feet caught in my one hand
his glance set sideways,
on a giant poster of Geronimo
with a Sharp’s repeating rifle by his knee.

I open, wipe, he doesn’t even notice
nor do I.
Baby legs and knees
toes like little peas
little wrinkles, good-to-eat,
eyes bright, shiny ears
chest swelling drawing air,

No trouble, friend,
you and me and Geronimo
are men.

Cian Surinder McDermott arrived yesterday, the latest addition to the Dooradoyle boys. (That’s KEY-en, for readers who aren’t Irish.)

“You think your heart is a certain size, but when you have children you realize it can get so much bigger,” my friend Andy told me last year. We don’t all get to visit that country, but there’s a postcard from it in Natasha’s eyes.

6 thoughts on “Toes Like Little Peas”

Wow, that is a beautiful child. He looks like he’s posing for the camera! I’ve never seen such an appealing newborn (or such an appealing new Mum, for that matter!)

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