A Birthday Poem for Mary

With fluffy blond hair
And flashing bright eyes
That giggle,
As she lights the room
With laughing talk
And happy face
And charm
As pure
As a newborn fawn
Is beautiful.

Strong she is
As a warrior's pledge
And each word from her lips
Is true
As the will
Of her sensitive soul
As she shares with her friends
And discovers herself
With the work of her hands
The flowing expression
Of her heart.

When she is still
The world stops.
To secretly gaze
At the turn of her cheek
And the nape of her neck,
The square of her shoulders
And arms of alabaster dawn.

Her mind is alive
Like a beating heart
Like the wings of a dove
In the winter blue sky
At the best of times
At the beginning of her life.