A Poem For My Son on His Fourth Birthday

Today marks your 4th turn around the sun,
And son, I love you.

Your tender heart will tear hatred apart,
I’m working to raise you intentionally.

Your beautiful family is built with LOVE
and also multi-faceted layers of grief + loss,
it would be a disservice to you to cover any of it with gloss.

Son, I love you.

Your heart is big, your heart is kind,
may I never lose sight of my role as your mother,
to teach you to use all that you are to work to break down any bind holding down another.

Especially your brother, your siblings + best friends wrapped in melanin,
may I raise you to live out a life of humility, and fierce intention.

And son... I love you.

I love you enough to raise you wide awake,
so it doesn’t feel like such a loss of comfort—a loss at all— when your privilege is at stake,
But rather just another day,
a natural way of living, to truly live out love,
for the people you love.

And son, I love you.

I love your spunk, your MOOD, your shine. I love your naughty and your kind. I love your creativity, the way you keep trying, your dance moves, your wild mind.

Son, I love you.

Happy birthday.

Photos by Megan Rose Photography in Keizer, OR