I Too Visit (Mary Anne Ernst)

Alma Louise said you would come
This is not exactly a five-star place for my baby, or you as visitor. 

 
You are right 

I see one star, though … and that twisted metal ... 

Maybe, for a moment, let's elevate it to contender for installation art at MoMA. 

I had visitors I did not know 

One brought the opossum 

Another brought these ethereal butterflies 

And a pigeon dropped feathers instead of the usual. 

The butterflies, they remind me of angels 

And look at the airy bits of wind 

I wonder who is blowing it here 

Are you cold ... is that your shirt in which you have swaddled the baby? 

To see him warm … that is warmth for me. 

The baby is a boy then What is his name? 

His name is J! 

I can barely see J's little head but yours, 

your head is halo-ed, and crowned, too. 

I don't think you need a halo much less a crown 

Your Afro is a halo and 

it is the most perfect Afro I have ever seen. 

The extraneous halo does a good deed, though ... it keeps the heavy crown from crushing your Afro. 

Thank you … my Afro is important to me. 

Alma Louise told me to look at your hands. 

With exquisite tenderness they cradle J 

And you have piano fingers, as my mother would say. 

J will play the piano and he will be good. 

I believe that ... oh what determination ... look at your face 

I know he will practice ... not like me 

You remind me of Mary of Nazareth ... at a wedding she made sure her son did what she told him 

Her action launched him … her actions always launched him. 

Would you like to hold J 

Please sit in the chair ... I think the opossum needs love, too ... I will cuddle with her … you cuddle with J. 

Me?!