Oh hold your children close to you tonight

(A villanelle)

So much happens just beyond our sight
In rooms where sorrow’s stain is bleached away
Oh hold your children close to you tonight

This plain-dressed couple with their faces tight
An aching loss for which they did not pray
So much happens just beyond our sight

We catch them in the elevator light
Their weeping willow curve that seems to say
Oh hold your children close to you tonight

I cannot tell them how we had to fight
For she can barely keep her tears at bay
So much happens just beyond our sight

And suddenly I want to curse this night
When God threw dice and our son got to stay
Oh hold your children close to you tonight

A perfect birth perhaps is no one’s right
But some receive an awful price to pay
So much happens just beyond our sight
Oh hold your children close to you tonight