PRESENCE Poem by Esther Jansma

No more questions from me: from now on I am going
to know things. From now on she is not rose but julia

and her sleep is not the sleep of things.
From now on she can be known, I am going to live

a long long time with her in a house and feed her,
teach her to speak and she will tell me how it is

while she is always changing. Always using different words.
Sometimes I cut her hair. Then her head changes.

As for me, I change so slowly she will not notice:
when she is grown up

I will always have been old and happy.