Once, you had gills 
and lived in the water 

of my body. While I 
planned for you, put 

sugar in a dish to attract 
all that’s sweet, sang 

along with Billie Holiday 
so you’d know sway. 

But you were already 
poetry, the meter  

of my heart in harmony 
with yours, their iambic 

fits and the pentameter  
of my gait, my sleeping 

breath. Oh, to keep  
you there, steady 

beat of life and coming 
to know the power 

of opening your eyes. 
Each day now I soothe 

your skin with peony 
cream where it grows 

coarser by the day,  
I shield the summer  

sun from your eyes 
and blow your tender 

head where it’s become 
wet from the heat, I teach 

you to keep yourself 
buoyant on the waves 

so one day you can find  
and thrive in the sea again.