A Baby Was Born

I could hear it in his voice

a warmth that comes from

holding a sleeping baby

“Guess what?” he said,

“Annie’s brother has come to live with us
his mom couldn’t care for him either,
Annie is so excited, even at eleven months
she seems to know he is safe now

and has been talking up a storm.
Didn’t know she had so much to say.
The other kids are excited too,
each one wants to take a turn to hold him.”

Alicia, their adopted one see’s
her place in the family and seems
to reconcile to the fact her own mother
gave her up, taking turns with the others

to hold the little infant
All this before the winter rains
as part of season’s greetings
the baby's cry fills the room

lusty and healthy and full of life
and on that Christmas morn,
a star was seen in the sky
when a baby was born.