Six Years Ago

I like cool times, like the twice a day
12:34, or 11:11, or 6:24 (anniversary).

And I like cool dates, like 11/12/13.

So it surprised me that I was many months
Pregnant before I realized
That ten days after my due date was
08/08/08.

Now no pregnant woman wants to be ten days overdue.
Seriously.
And I had been here years before, hoping for an early delivery
On 12/21 (ah, beloved palindrome!),
Crushed when that didn’t happen.
I also had missed a 5/25 (farewell, dear square).

Farewell to my assumption that I was a princess
Whose life whims were to be satisfied.

I did think that it would be a mite unkind
To be nine days overdue and deliver on 08/07/08,
But I rather expected it.
Sometimes God seems capricious.
Or at least unpredictable.
But an imperfect 8-7-8 date would surely be growthful.

Nine days overdue, my parents and I went for a long walk.
Nothing happened.

The hours passed, and the day changed.

At two in the morning I woke and thought, “I will stand up
And my water will break and then I will have this baby.”

I stood up and my water broke.
I had about an hour of contracting in peace,
Listening to hymns in my house.
Midwife and aides arrived,
And in another hour Joe came, too.

“That was a beautiful birth.”
And it was.

So I ended with the 08/08/08 date,
A fourth son,
A beautiful birth.

And a princess whim satisfied.