Dear Angela,

 

My apology for being late

With my poetic welcome.

 

Glad you came

On the last day of February,

In a year without leap.

Otherwise, just think about

Celebrating birthday on Feb.29

Only once every four years.

 

We were notified of your arrival,

Electronically the next day,

By your joyous Dad.

He proudly reported your rapidity

Of coming through the birth canal

In a paltry 30 minutes.

I only know of one other person

Who literally parachuted down to earth

As his unsuspecting mother

Walked across a bedroom door.

He did not get any booboo.

 

You are the first child

Of your parents,

And the first

Of Xiangyin family this year.

We had ten newborns last year,

Just in case you want to know

How much hard labor and

Easy poetry were involved.

 

Under what circumstances

Were you born?

This is the question

I want to share with you.

Rest assured

I was not privy at all

To any romantic nitty-gritty

About your parents.

 

You just passed your first trimester

Before the infamous September 11 attacks

But you arrived in a post-911 world.

The anti-terrorism war is being waged

First in Afghanistan and now spreads

To Al Qaeda hideouts in

The Philippines, Yemen, Georgia.

Next in line will be the “axis of evil?

Iraq, Iran, North Korea.

 

Even as you were prepared to come out,

Diehard terrorists numbered in thousands

Regrouped and were holed up

In eastern Afghanistan mountain caves.

They are now subject to the righteous wrath

Of the most powerful nation

That you are enviably born to.

 

You landed on a flat bottom

Of a recession unseen for a long time.

Dot Com bubbles popped one after another.

High-tech laden NASDAQ composite index

Dived from 5000 to under 2000 in a year.

Paper wealth evaporated at the speed of e-trade.

Once red-hot computer jobs

Were acquainted with icy chill.

New Jersey’s MIT

(That is, Mo’s Institute of Technology)

Has merged with several others

And now touts Bioinformatics as the new savior.

Your Dad will tell you far better

How he spent much of your second and third trimesters

Between his last and current job

As a good househusband.

 

But he has been cheerful

Ever since little Angela’s seeding

And stretching within your Mom.

His joy has been transcendental

Over the gloomy reality

Ever since the angelic spirit of good news

Hovered over his receptive heart

On September 23, 2001.

Your Mom too was visited

By the same angel of light

On that Sunday morning.

 

I can thus assure you with confidence,

Despite the unwelcome circumstances,

You have been welcomed in joy

Since the very moment of conception.

For that I congratulate you

For a lifelong journey

That has begun in blessing.

 

Welcome, Angela.

 

(Composed on March 3, 2002)