My dad wrote this poem for me, on the day I was born, 50 years ago today! Love to both my amazing parents ~ thank you for so much. And then some. And to all my friends, throughout all the years! Smooches, Elizabeth

Are you blue eyed?

Are you red haired?

Are you whole and alive?

Are you the nurse’s or mine?

And what’s that chalk on arms?

No crying?

So complete and ready-made?

Yet through suffering arrived,

This early morn.

That chin—it’s hers

My wife’s and her whole family’s.

Their chin and face.

Am I in on this?

Sire an offspring to my wife?

It’s hers, not mine.

And it’s a girl.

I said it might be.

But all that activity,

Yet I said it might be,

I suppose not believing it.

Now, a girl, and hers, not mine,

Yet alive, and whole,

Maybe even beautiful

Certainly not that ugly thing

I was told to expect

But ours, yet ours—a girl,

And ours.

Don Salper

2/7/1964