A promise to a promise

You were only a promise, then
white blobby thing
on a grainy black background
vaguely person-shaped
sucking your thumb
(which I never saw you do, again)
and gleefully hiding your sex
from the pushy-proddy thingy
on the other side
of the wall
between you and the world

You were only
a promise of a person
when I promised you
the best of me
for always

I haven’t always been
the best
but I have always given you
the best I had to give
to the best of my ability

Now
you are so much more
than a promise
you are a promise fulfilled
and still promising
a line of hope and beauty
music and love
laughter and tears
brilliance and vitality
and possibility
stretching farther out into the future
than I will ever go

And I am content
to simply keep
keeping my promise
and watching you
becoming yours

---

Originally posted elsewhere, September 14, 2014