Stop

She arrives, a strawberry
Birthmark right on her forehead
Like an oversized bindi,

Not that her family knows,
Really, what a bindi is.
It will fade, in a few years.

For now, she’s bald and sturdy,
No signs of the frailty
That marks her older brother

And her father in his chair.
This is good. It’s good enough
For her father to agree

Now he’ll go ahead and get
That precautionary snip
Against future frailty.