Newborn

At first we must invent

in your smile, some feeling.

Because, it seems, intent

is evident of being.

And we need you to be.  Be more than a tiny, crying, puking, pooping, drooping, sleeping machine.

So we search, peer and test to detect

some sign, some glimmer of intellect.

Similarly automated,

like you, something in me waited

to feel

until you smiled at me for real.