(Previously published at
www.enzo.org/two)
with love
and hugs and kisses
from Nonni
First Views
First we saw your tiny swimming feet,
your tiny turned-up nose,
weeks before your were born,
and then
we couldn’t take our eyes off you,
your own new-baby blue eyes shut tight.
Slowly you took us in,
blue eyes turning brown
as you nuzzled and slept,
rocked to the tune
of a whispered, improvised lullaby.
The Travelin’ Man
You snuggled through that first big wedding,
cuddled by turns in everyone’s arms.
For the second you were everywhere:
up dusty steps at the rehearsal dinner,
munching grapes with Grandpa Skip
(the ceremony solemn above),
then dancing all night with the ladies,
still the cuddliest wedding guest of all.
As wilderness camper that first Thanksgiving,
you jostled to sleep on the bumpiest trails,
face cradled in Nonni’s hands.
By the next big trip
we walked and we talked and we played in the rocky sand,
but we steered well clear of the cholla this year--
no more thorns in our Enzo’s soft skin.
School
First you watched wide-eyed,
then, mobile,
you scooted up and down the piles of soft steps
and dined with your friends on finger-food:
peas and bananas, cracker bits and cookies,
delicious half-grapes and WATERMELON.
You joined, transported, in stories and songs—
the itsy bitsy spider, the high stepping horsey—
mirroring each gesture in time to each tune.
One day you dipped a casual drink
from a tiny toy airplane,
on another you gleefully ran,
towing a streamer ten feet long
and covered, like you, in finger paint.
(I watched, half-hidden, till you saw me,
your face lighting up: time for Nonni’s house!)
Nonni’s House
Bird songs,
bird bath,
magnets on the refrigerator door;
Eagle Dancer,
Foo dogs with teeth,
and a Wild Thing over the fireplace:
you notice everything!
We play chase
or “peek-a-boo”
or golf
or catch
or “Which is the hat that fits?”
You hide behind the curtains
(“Where’s Enzo?”)
and pick berries
and dig
and play with the hose in the mud.
Sometimes we even go down to the gully
But most often, to Grandpa’s garage!
Airplane
And here you’re Enzo the airplane inspector:
twirling the drill press,
steering the band saw,
hammering cleckos,
and sweeping aluminum dust.
Then up in the airplane
you flip all the switches
and Enzo the pilot
is just on his way!
Toys
First was the fuzzy white monkey,
then the baby in the dinosaur suit.
By now you go for the airplanes
(they take off and fly and land),
and the school bus with its rolling eyes
and especially the circus train.
(You like to make it move and whistle
and its people and animals play.)
Books
You choose the books, one by one,
settling comfortably on our laps;
you know each title—
Mr. Brown can Moo,
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb
Old Hat, New.
You fill in the words whenever we pause,
when the bears go “Up Spook Hill—WHOOO!”
and Max says “Stop!”
and Mickey calls “Mama! Papa!”
And you never forget that the blackbirds like noses
when they fly from the king’s big pie.
Enzo Time
You took your own time turning over,
invented your own inch-worm crawl,
walked alone when you felt like it.
And now
you hop skip hop
and--one two three--GO!
Words,
You learned to talk before you could speak:
you signed that you were “So big!”
You told us when you wanted “More”
or were “done” or “hungry” or “thirsty”
(but never ever “sleepy”);
you cracked us all up with “I’ll be right back”
with a finger, a smile, and a wink.
Your first spoken word was really a dog word,
learned from Aunt Talia’s dog, Zeus:
you said it with a little worry in your eye,
his enormous “Woouh, woouh, WOOUH!”
“Buh” could be “bird” or “box” or “book”;
we were “Mama,” “Papa,”
“Gaga,” “Nana,” and “Dapa”.
(You claimed your own name was “Baby”:
“Enzo” was way too hard.)
words,
For a while it was “NO!”
“No shirt!”
“No shorts!”
“No shoes!”
“No socks!”
“No sleeping!”
and certainly
“NO
NEW
DIAPER!”
words!
Now you talk and you sing all the time:
“Me, baby.”
“E O — Enzo; E O — Mama!”
“Cloud cover(ing) mountain.”
“Dapa (out of) town (on a) BIG AIRPLANE!”
“They say,
‘Don’t touch this, don’t touch that.’
I can touch all my toys!”
“Hi, guys, how ya doin’?”
“Bye, guys! (Oh shoot, forgot my keys!)”
“Hmmm, let’s see.”
“Shoo, fly, don’t bother me.”
“Pick up Enzo, please!”
“Upside down, upside up!”
“No, please.”
“Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can!”
“Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you!”
“This boy’s name is ENZO!”
Kathleen Irace
(2000)