On First Seeing My Granddaughter in Sonograms

   for Juniper

    by Stephen Bunch

Asleep in the amniotic night, enfolded

in the sound of your mother’s steady surge,

you wait for the wave that will take you

to our strange shore. Namasté—

I greet the light in you, even

as the stars grow dimmer around me.

With each frame you become more distinct,

each day closer to your descent

into this life, its objects

and affections, your hands opened

outward, fingers flexed, as I pause to press

my palms together, namasté.

I await your arrival to share for a time

this thin strand in the widening world.

© 2010 Stephen Bunch

Stephen Bunch’s work has appeared recently in Umbrella and The Literary Bohemian. From 1978 to 1988, he published Tellus, a magazine featuring work by Jack Anderson, Jane Hirshfield, Denise Low, Paul Metcalf, Edward Sanders, and others. He received the 2008 Langston Hughes Award for Poetry from the Lawrence Arts Center.  His chapbook, Cricket in My Shoe, is scheduled for publication by The Lives You Touch Publications in 2010.