In "My Son, My Executioner" what does it mean when he says "his c

Question: In "My Son, My Executioner" what does it mean when he says "his cries and hunger document our bodily decay"!?

also, do you see any symbolism in the line "quite and small and just astir"

My son, my executioner
I take you in my arms
Quiet and small and just astir
and whom my body warms

Sweet death, small son,
our instrument of immortality,
your cries and hunger document
our bodily decay!.

We twenty two and twenty five,
who seemed to live forever,
observe enduring life in you
and start to die together!.

- Donald HallWww@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

1) The line "Quiet and small and just astir" contains no great symbolism (to my reading of it, anyway)!. It's just a description of a man holding a young child who barely moves or makes a sound!. You could, I suppose, take it a step further and talk about that whole line as symbolic of all human existence (it's fragility), but, I don't see any symbolism beyond that!.

2) I think the poem is steeped in irony!. Reproduction is seen by many as a means to immortality, but, in producing as child, one is daily reminded of one's own mortality!. The "cries and hunger" that "document our bodily decay" are, in essence, a journal or diary of those reminders!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

to me it says the child died of hunger, a child that would have lived on past the parents, making the parents immortal as there would always be someone left to remember the parentsWww@QuestionHome@Com