Grand Daughter

I am feeling a certain terror at this new birth.
My terror is driving out joy
that I should be feeling.

My fear is not unreasonable.
I am too old
not to know what can typically go wrong
for both child
and also the mother.

I admit it's an old man's song
who fears delusion
and hates having thoughts so bleak,
unable to have trust in fate,
knowing gods are subtle.

I sit and wait
like everyone else for dénouement:
light-fingered grace or the hammer of natural law
from which there is never recall,
no appeal worth mention.