Friday, June 15, 2012

Labor-pains




When they tell us it’s over
It’s a girl; it’s a boy
We are about to discover
As virgin joy
Washes our faces
Our new daughter or son
That it will never be over
It has just begun

The labor of love
The ebb and flow
Of white-knuckle clinging
And letting go
Is a sacred experience
Simple word cannot grasp
We teach them to fly
While we cradle and clasp

I close my eyes now
As I strain to recall
The curve of your face
When you were so small
And all those thought pictures
I sealed in my heart
Have somehow grown blurry
In love’s ceaseless art

I trace you again; hungrily
Time is a foe
Pulling you from me
But I’ll never let go
For holding is not
A physical grip
I hold you even
As from my arms you slip

The call of life
Is like no other
It tugs love’s off-spring
From the arms of a mother
And this is the way
It surely must be
We cannot remain
On our mother’s knee

Yes, when they tell us it’s over
Childbirth’s groaning and pain
We are about to discover
It never will be again
For this travail of agony
And heart-wrenching bliss
Is a life-long embrace
Of love’s farewell kiss

© Janet Martin




2 comments:

  1. I repeat myself, but I cannot help it: I think I cry every time I visit your blog!!! Your words always move me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sasha,I seem to be super-sentimental at certain times of the year (like now:)...I can't believe another school-year is coming to a close in Canada.(I think you guys are done already, right?)

    When I hug Victoria before she gets on the bus I think she thinks she's hugging me' cause she feels sad that I'm lonely when they are gone:)This morning it struck me how lean and hard and long her arms have gotten. I asked Matt for a pic...I wanna remember this!...and he was the one who spawned my thoughts on this whole topic. The other afternoon Victoria came home and announced that Matt was voted for Valedictorian at the Grade 8 grad on June 28! When I beamed at him he blushed...he never used to blush! and I found myself suddenly staring at him and trying to remember what that warm, grubby toddler smelled and felt like...so YES! my eyes are full of tears too! It's so true, what 'they' told us when they were born...they grow up fast!' I know it now...

    Thank-you for your words...mother to mother we know EXACTLY what we're feeling:)

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