LOST & FOUND
(by Maren Peterson DEGROFF)
She gazes down
through the plastic box,
unable to comprehend his
tiny body.
The monitor wires,
IV lines and feeding tubes tangled over
the gently rising chest
expanding and contracting
in mechanical rhythm,
his mouth taped open- a gaping silent cry
that freezes cold
her heart.
She is lost.
Sinking into the madness
of her grief, her guilt,
an apology
forever on her lips.
She lifts slowly, the door
to his high-tech womb,
her own aching,
for it's emptiness.
His hands flutter and feet twitch
she cannot interpret his foetal dance,
a foreign language spoken too soon.
She longs to touch him,
to erase this space between them -
her hand trembling,
settling down this other-worldly angel child,
her palm enveloping his entire torso.
She feels the fragile skin, like soft tissue paper,
his back arches, he squirms at her touch,
and at the sound of her whispered voice
his eyelids slowly draw up,
dark eyes drawing her into this mystery.
She is lost now in love,
and forever is found.
Too much ecstasy,
too much desire to sweep him
up into her arms
as she chokes on
the grief and the love
surrendering to the joy that he lives,
he lives,
her sunflower, her son.
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