Father in-law,
Here's a copy. Sorry to be sending it to the entire list. I couldn't find
your email address. I'm also forwarding the birth announcement for those
who may not be aware of the context of this beautiful poem.
How is my daughter-in-law? Give my love to the family.
--Emilie

I am happy to inform you all ,that I was initiated into the Grandpa and
grandma club of the world, in the early hours of Saturday 21st of July 2001,
by my daghter, Osaru Iyi-Eweka, who gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.
The baby weighed 9lbs. 4oz. and was 21 inches long. They are both doing
very well.

GRANDPA

Trepidations!
Does the baby move?
Sensations!
Like the old move,
A pregnant wife
A pregnant daughter.
A thought with a strife.
A thought also bitter.

This is the first daughter.
This is first grand daughter.
Like yester years' anxiety,
As mother lays in child birth,
Torn between life and death,
With birth pains all over.
And man paces up and down.

Incoherent voices presses
Frightening thoughts races.
Palpitations at the buttocks.
And " what do you call it "shrinks,
As monitors survey the old and new life.
The long sleepless wait.
At the end of a blade,
A baby echoes her first cry of life.

A new life is born,
Into a world torn,
With hunger, death,
Food and life.
Contradictions galore!!!
It is a beautiful world baby.
Rose! Rose!! Agharese!!!....
Dead silence!
You are a grandma.
Deadlier silence!!
Er....I too, am GRANDPA.

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