The Shortest Time

One dim lamp casts the room in gold and shadow, on the nightstand from the '40s with the chipped veneer. Crib, radiator, burnished floorboards, and so still I can hear her minute breathing: Stop time for me while I watch my infant daughter's face in the hour before dawn as she sleeps in my arms. Of all the girls we'll have in her, we'll have this girl the shortest time.