I hadn't met his kind before.
His misericord face – really,
like a joke on his father – blurred
as if from years of polish;
The dry, understated opening line conveys unequivocally the speaker’s feeling of separateness and alienation from her new baby. The tone is humorous. She prefers not even to mention that he is a baby; instead “his kind” implies another type of life form altogether.
Love