For Dad O' My Heart!!
Happy Birthday!!

Stanza
I have grown into that perfect old day--
A fledgling ecco! on marble steps.
It will not do to hunt me down
Like an over-the-shoulder seasoning
You thought you'd heard about.
I have grown into that perfect old day.

  --Sue Burnside
    22 June 2012

Italian words: 
ecco!:   "so there!",  "so!"
stanza: verse of a poem or song