Anticipation
By the end of the ninth
month, the days seem
sluggish, stalled.
The space in the apartment
brims with expectation, yet
is laden with longing.
The baby lies low, but my
daughter manages to walk.
It is a September blue-sky day and
we narrate the landscape, point out
the smells of the Chinese restaurant
on the corner, the drift of lacy clouds
over the sleek Verrazano Bridge.
Superheroes whoosh by us, chase
one another. Spiderman,
Batman and Superman fly across
broken pavement. I tell my unborn
grandson: remember
we all start out as good guys.
Around the corner at the Greek Festival
carousels and tilt-a-whirls spin on
the street midway, children squeal,
wrapped in cotton candy. We tell each
other if he hears the excitement
he may decide to finally join
us and then laugh at ourselves.
We come home tired, buoyed
by the energy of the streets.
I caress her belly and read My Love
Will Find You Wherever You Are.
I look at my daughter, radiant
and ready, transformed by this
state of grace
as we wait, imagine
his face, his sounds, his scent.
Jan Marin Tramontano, a writer living in New York and Florida is the author of three poetry chapbooks, Woman Sitting in a Café and other poems of Paris, Floating Islands: New and Collected Poems, and Paternal Nocturne. a novel, Standing on the Corner of Lost and Found and her father’s memoir, I Am a Fortunate Man. Last year, she won a prize for her poem, Matrushka Dolls in the Gulf Coast Writers Guild annual contest. Her poetry, stories, book reviews and interviews have also been published in numerous literary journals, magazines, and newspapers such as Poets Canvas, Chronogram, Women’s Synergy, Knock, The DuPage Valley Review, Moms Literary Review, New Verse News ,Byline and previous issues of Up the River.
She belongs to the Gulf Coast Writers Guild, Poets House, and currently serves as contest administrator for the Hudson Valley Writers Guild.