Beginning a Family

They’ve done the baby poses.
Those photos will outlast them,
Or at least a couple will.

They have each taken a step
Closer to normality,
To the mainstream of their world.

She’s no longer a spinster
Working woman, shy thanks to
Premature upper dentures,

And he’s no longer only
The small man in the wheelchair
Still living with his parents.

He has her, and she has him,
And he has his own business,
And they have their own ranch house,

And now they have a baby
Boy with curly chestnut hair,
With whom they’ve posed for photos.

It’s October, and the leaves
Have turned, and they’ve found a church
That’s Baptist enough for them,

And in two days the Cuban
Missile Crisis will begin
To threaten them with The End.