in which families say / regarding their four-hour-old newborn /
she has her mother’s eyes / her father’s nose / her grandmother’s
ears / her grandfather’s toes
then / as she grows / characteristics set in and families say / she
has this one’s smarts / that one’s athletic gift / this one’s fine
draftsmanship / that one’s bubbly showmanship
in time / virtues and faults follow / whose temper / whose charm
/ whose tolerance / whose stubbornness / whose gracefulness /
whose possessiveness / whose pridefulness / whose calm
eventually / the game may complicate / with troubling hints /
of inherited sadness / or worry / or brittleness / or over-strict
conscience
yet in this intermittent / speculative game / families often see
things not there / or fail to notice what is
and in any case / any trait handed down gets amended / by the
child’s private / thorny / experience
so even after a years-long session of this game / in truth / nobody
knows a thing
the child least of all
leaving her to her own / slow / self-defining speculations / to her
own / unfolding / consequential / game of solitaire
The literary magazine of Hagerstown Community College