C Allen
"My Child, My Love"
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I was awakened the other night by the sound of my baby boy Zach crying through our little baby monitor. My wife nudged me to go check on him. Which annoyed me to no end because she knows how busy I am at work and that I had been preparing for a presentation the following day. I, naturally, don't say anything. Instead I get up, grumbling under my breath, and make my way to Zach's room. I hear Zach stop crying shortly before I get to the door and for a split second I'm frightened that something has happened. I quicken my pace for the last few steps and when I look into his room he's standing up in his crib looking straight at me like he's wondering why it took me so long to get there. Zach has these big, bright, piercing blue eyes that are filled with all the wonder and innocence that only a child can possess. I check if he's wet, and he isn't. I assume he had a nightmare and I begin laying him back down for bed. My wife has always been better at getting him to bed. She'll say a few words in her soothing voice, or sing a few phrases of lullabies she's picked up from God knows where. I can't sing. But I do see my families old piano against the wall. I haven't played since I was a boy and I certainly don't know any lullabies. But I wonder if, just this once, I can find a voice to sing my boy to sleep... ...I look down on Zach. My little boy! I watch the slow rise and fall of his tiny chest. I oh so gently touch that chest and feel his tiny heart beating. In that moment, my job, my presentation tomorrow, doesn't matter. All I know is love. My child, my love. (Note: The above short story is fictional. This was the mental imagery I used while doing this simple, two chord, improvised lullaby.)