Baby Joys and Tears

When she stepped up to hold my hand, pale faced, something to tell me, I needed to know, three words 'I love you' now had been replaced with 'I am pregnant', plus a bump to show. My mind and heart and soul all took long strides in seconds from my youth to fatherhood, the conflict of emotions felt inside tempered by promises of something good. We shopped and browsed for baby clothes and toys, not thinking about pink or powder blue, she felt a bonny girl, I wished for boy, but healthy, really, either one would do. The answer came, crying, after midnight, one January, nineteen eighty-eight, five pounds eight ounces, mother held her tight, time stopped, we lived for now, future could wait. In retrospect, I wish the future had- it brought presents which I did not expect, like bitterness and pain, daughter and dad now torn asunder, all foundations wrecked. Nine years since we last spoke, I do recall, pinholes where photos hung upon the wall. For contest 'Joys and tears of being an expectant parent', sponsor Olive Eloisa Guillermo. 15th July 2018