Elmo's Love

From clamor to stupor
in no time flat.
Why?
Because Elmo loves you.

Two year-olds transfixed
By soothing sanguine cooing
Because Elmo loves you.

Elmo loves you redly,
As redly as the scarlet light
Of translucent womb
Tethered to the gurgly-high pitch
Of mother tongue in amnion.

Before you were born,
Elmo loved you.

Lip-synch, precious wide eyes,
To your rock-a-bye babe
To your own sweet mother,
But, hush--did you hear?
Elmo loves you.

Gestate further,
Premature joey.
Go back in.
Return for a while
To your bean chair home.

So long as Elmo loves you,
Suckle with consanguinity the boob-tube.

Mr. Rogers abides likewise, near your mom,
In a red cardigan.

Breast-feed in the land of make-believe
and imagine, child,
The red flame
From within your mother's belly.

And when grown,
Or imagined grown,
For want of burning bush
Do not despair.

A cardinal in the thicket,
A tanager on the bough,

And back to your mother, repair.