For My Nephew Going to Bed

It takes a whole house to put a child to bed.

I wonder what he dreams worth all the business

Of washing, inspecting, kissing, and being carried

Pick-a-back for all the aunts to witness

He’s one day older and on his way like us all

To being sorry for it. I recall

Times when a smile was its own good moral:

Laugh and the world’s half saved,

Be gently thoughtful, wash, comb, eat your cereal,

And God will always know you’re well behaved

And must not be aimed at by unemployment, shrapnel,

Eviction, delirium tremens, or sin’s black market,

Nor be allowed to grow like your uncle—mad

With measuring our unbalanced etiquette,

Where normally to put one child to bed

Takes more commotion than half the world’s corpses get.

While I stand stupid-solemn, a little daft,

Surprised that I have this much pity left.