When I lay my head in my mother's lap I think how day hides the stars, the way I lay hidden once, waiting inside my mother's laughter. And I remember how she carried me on her back between home and kindergarten, once each morning and once each afternoon. I don't know what my mother's thinking. When my son lays his head in my lap, I worry His lips, swollen with his father's kisses, won't keep his father's worries from becoming his. I think, @3Dear God@1, and remember there are stars we haven't heard from yet they have so far to arrive. @3Amen@1, I think, and I feel almost comforted. I've no idea what my child is thinking. Between two unknowns, I live my life. And what's it like? Between my mother's hopes, older than I by coming before me, and my child's wishes, older than I by outliving me, what's it like? Is it a door, and a good-bye on either side? Is it a window, and eternity on either side? Yes, yes and a little singing between two great rests. First published in @3The Kenyon Review@1, Volume 22, #1, Winter 2000. www.kenyonreview.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: GEORGE GRAY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: THE UNKNOWN by EDGAR LEE MASTERS CHAMBER MUSIC: 35 by JAMES JOYCE DEDICATION TO THE LATER SONNETS TO URANIA by GEORGE SANTAYANA LINES ON LEAVING THE BEDFORD STR. SCHOOL HOUSE by GEORGE SANTAYANA |