For My Daughter in Reply to a Question by David Ignatow

For My Daughter in Reply to a Question

We’re not going to die.

We’ll find a way.

We’ll breathe deeply

and eat carefully.

We’ll think always on life.

There’ll be no fading for you or for me.

We’ll be the first

and we’ll not laugh at ourselves ever

and your children will be my grandchildren.

Nothing will have changed

except by addition.

There’ll never be another as you

and never another as I.

No one ever will confuse you

nor confuse me with another.

We will not be forgotten and passed over

and buried under the births and deaths to come.