Here's a photo of me and my daughter Caitlin shortly after her birth, and a Lally sonnet I wrote about it, and a photo of her and me dancing a few years ago. 

FEBRUARY 28TH, 1968

I hold Lee’s hand for hours as she labors

quietly, only a string of curses under her

breath at the recurring pain. We can hear

a woman singing arias that get louder and

louder til her singing becomes screaming.

It scares Lee but also makes her laugh be-

tween contractions. Eventually they make

me wait in the room where fathers pace, as

in all the cartoons and movies, till Caitlin

is shown to me behind glass, in an incubator

cause she’s so small. I always found new-

borns with their pinched little faces alike and

wondered how people could line up and stare

at the little monkeys for hours. Now I know.