back door child

Back Door Child

When Fate and Fortune come knocking at the door,
we always expect them at the front door.
Why, there are paintings showing Destiny at our front door,
with us hesitating to answer the insistent knock.

The front door is where strangers come.
The front door separates us from the world.
The front door protects us from the clamour of the world.
The front door is fixed up fancy and formal.

But sometimes the visitor doesn't come to the front door.
The back door is, well, kind of informal.
Sometimes it's a little messy around that door.
Sometimes the lock doesn't work right.
The back door opens into our garden.

There's something polite and direct about back door people.
Back door people are people who belong.
Back door people like to leave their boots on the kitchen steps.
Back door people get along with the dog.
Back door people know who you are.
Back door news is brought by close ones, not by strangers.
Back door choices are simpler choices than front door choices.

And now there is a child that chooses to knock at the back door,
and we wonder what kind of a child would knock at the back door.
Well, this child wasn't left in a basket in the middle of the night,
at the front door, like an unwanted obligation.

This child has come quietly to a place of expected welcome.
This child has come into our garden asking to come into our hearts.
This child, this back door child, surely brings love.

On the unexpected news of daughter's pregnancy.