“The child is father to the man….”
— William Wordsworth

He read a meditation on
the instantaneousness of
fatherhood, the mother
having approximately
nine months, of carrying
around her offspring, to
get accustomed to mother-
hood. His mind flashed
back forty-eight years
as he stood on the other
side of the window and
watched the final grunt
and saw four limbs
flailing, an umbilical
cord, a flopping, little
penis and two tiny test-
icles — oh, my, a boy,
thrust unceremoniously
from Eden, but still —
a man-child in the
promised land.