so much of our time now
is spent gazing towards you
names and clothing
whispers of your birth down a phone line

so many hands
resting like barometers
along my belly
and it feels like the silence

in a thunderstorm
waiting for you to sound
as if hiding in an eggshell
under our hands

we wait patiently
with only the sound of our breath
until you shake, kick, hiccup
and a smile erupts

from my mother or father or sister
new acquaintance or friend
“I felt it!” they sing
and you connect for the first time

with the people
that you will gaze at
in under nine short weeks
and just in the last few days

your daddy and I
experience a shift in your strength
your thunderstorm rumbles
so random and brief

turn into earthquakes
measured over long moments
where with a deep power
you extend an elbow, foot or hand

out in a long slow arc
that we follow in wonder with our eyes
like a shooting star
knowing that our wish has already come true in you

copyright – Christina Adler - 21 December 2009 – San Mateo, California USA

Photo by Peter Moore – Taken in The Hunter Valley in January 2008