When you came to be inside me,
our bodies decided we would survive,
and we chose a supporting role in all their mysteries
when survival meant nurture and shelter.
Tag: motherhood
Rocking Chair
You don’t want to lay down, but it’s not time to run,
so you arch, throw yourself, scream, dive, and you hate me.
I bring you to myself and calm your body down.
You tire out then wake slightly, force some side-eye
like you trust me, and I slide you to your bed
as seamlessly as I can, deep-breathing in your ear
until you’re long-lost. You sleep long enough to little more
than recover, sit up in your bed and smile, start whining for me.
I say, “Come here,” and you wedge between my thighs,
contentedly rest your head on my leg, and you need me.
I pat your back, so you lean your face on my stomach.
You’ve forgiven me. Oh, you see your twin has the doll you like,
so you squeak, forget me. You go out to the world,
glance backwards at me, loving me, and carry on.
Laps
Sweet girl, eyes shining, endlessly dying
for attention she knows I can give-
what she shows with her lips
that she wants: Soft smile, chestRead More »
Circles in Life
There’s a dip below the clavicle
that begs to cradle the zygoma.
The zygoma makes a sort of
symbiotic, constant cry.
Baby’s satisfied through her mother,
until mom leaves her to the man.
Soon he hands to her their baby,
and it all begins again.
On Being an Ideas Person
After a month of nearly falling off the bottom of the earth,
Ma placed me in my bed, where I woke imagining
feeling wide-eyed, refreshed, wondrous of where I was-
jumping off the bed, landing in flexible splat as impossible
as the dogs I used to try to draw were ugly.
I didn’t really know how dogs’ heads or human bodies worked,
but I wanted a Lisa Frank retriever and my butt to be in the air,Read More »
Grandmother’s Beach Body
Confidence lies in the eyes of the matron,
sufficiently down to earth to know
the grounds on which her legs
hold her up.
By the shore, her giving smile
shines like a lighthouse,
lets the drowning know that unlikeRead More »
Sunset
When we were at each other’s cores,
you above and I beneath,
you were the light that colored the only world I had seen.
I engaged what I saw, and you slid to the side,
and suddenly all appeared more grey.
Those were the days when you seemed to be fading.Read More »
On Hope Pt. 3
Perhaps it matters a bit to you
whether ‘Mama’ or ‘Dada’ came first,
but your first words aren’t on your list
of your greatest accomplishments.Read More »
On Hope Pt. 2
Unconsciousness lifts, ceasing being
your world. Instead, your sky-
a rooftop, as
you perceive it these days.Read More »
Alphabet Ravine 