a poem for today

I am feeling like words are pretty powerful now--like they can be both the rock upon which a house is built and the lashing winds that are vicious enough to tear it down. So I'll dedicate each Friday to a poem, to one of those concentrated word-bonbons that are so easy to digest but so challenging to create!

A Child is Something Else Again

A child is something else again. Wakes up
in the afternoon and in an instant he's full
of words,
in an instant he's humming, in an instant warm,
instant light, instant darkness.

A child is Job. They've already placed their
bets on him
but he doesn't know it. He scratches his body
for pleasure. Nothing hurts yet.
They're training him to be a polite Job,
to say "Thank you" when the Lord has given,
to say "You're welcome" when the Lord has
taken away.

A child is vengeance.
A child is a missile into the coming generations.
I launched him: I'm still trembling.

A child is something else again: on a rainy
spring day
glimpsing the Garden of Eden through the
fence,
kissing him in his sleep,
hearing footsteps in the wet pine needles.
A child delivers you from death.
Child, Garden, Rain, Fate.

by Yehuda Amichai

Does that send shivers up anyone else's spine?