No one can order a grandchild.
Once you had borne children,
for years all you could do
was patiently wait, nursing
a secret hope. So, now that
the wondrous wished-for parcel
has safely arrived, you will
count it as a boon.
You and your daughter are equal,
both of you mothers now,
the two of you more in tune.
You know what it means to your child
to cuddle a child of her own.
You know too the joys,
the broken nights, the worries,
the dramas that lie ahead.
But you are the luckier mother
for you have the better deal.
Yours is a part-time role –
just helping out. Yet you
and the child will share a hotline,
by-passing family tensions.
You’ll watch her flourish and grow –
somebody new in your life.
John Barclay