poem for Zach -

Meeting Zach

Zach has red curls

twined into my heart

after four hours together.

He met me with eyes into which I stepped

when he took me to his room

to see his trains. 

I brought the red engine James to add

to his Thomas collection,

and he immediately created a need

and brought in a crane.

This is a child who knows how to play doctor,

knows how to give a shot and set up a transfusion.

His mother is receiving a blood marrow transplant,

so we are giving him adult friends and his eyes

are huge with the understanding of it, the need. 

When I see him figure out how to rescue

a car of the train when he is only two and a half,

when I see the brain in process, head to fingers,

I know we can solve every problem on this planet,

put a crane to every track and bring each car home

with a bellowing, “All aboard!”