[00:00:00] Harmony Button has had her work published in "Best American Notable Essays of 2015." She gifted us with a gorgeous short poem celebrating the birth of a new family. Here is "Rich":
[00:00:15] King-size sheets on a queen-size bed.
[00:00:18] Corn silk scalp and milky head.
[00:00:21] Late night night light salt lamp glow.
[00:00:25] Daytime naps and days of slow
[00:00:28] walks and long talks and rich snacks
[00:00:31] in bed: Honeycrisp apples and almond-
[00:00:34] dappled crumbs of toast we offer the dog
[00:00:37] as we count and log the minutes of sleep and
[00:00:41] ounces of milk. This is how we show our
[00:00:44] love from before and our love's new debut:
[00:00:48] clean sheets, warm sleep, a precious few
[00:00:51] moments of skin on skin with not baby -- him,
[00:00:56] my new old body back to thin and fits
[00:00:59] against his torso for so long as we can until
[00:01:03] our mouths that clutch unlatch
[00:01:05] from one and open to another
[00:01:08] as if the world were made of milk
[00:01:10] and we three were, all of us, afloat
[00:01:14] and drowning in it.