 |
| Image | rquiros |
Luna, Paloma
I wanted a daughter, so in the first trimester of my second pregnancy
I lay in moonlight once a month invoking Artemis and Lilith
yin strength and the round egg of my womb.
In dreams an angel came to me saying she will be unlike you
and I agreed. In dreams the angel told me you cannot live through her
and I acquiesced again.
The angel said you know that she will leave you and I asked,
“Is this a test?” For I am myself a daughter, I know I cannot hold her
longer than she will stand for it.
Is that why you are weeping even now? the angel asked.
“No, I’m thinking of my mother,” I said to the moonlight,
to the empty room, to my daughter
who was cooing like a gray dove, suspended in the nest
I’d constructed just for her.
First appeared in Ann’s collection Abundance/Diminishment
 |
| Ann E. Michael Ann E. Michael lives in eastern Pennsylvania. Her latest poetry collection (2024) is Abundance/Diminishment. Her work has appeared in Ninth Letter, One Art, Ekphrasis Review, and many others, as well as in numerous anthologies. She chronicles her writing, reading, and garden on a long-running blog at www.annemichael.blog. |
This is beautiful. It reminds me of all my dreams, prayers, fears, and hopes when I was pregnant with my son (26 years ago!). And the third stanza...yes. :)
ReplyDeleteBeing a mother is tough. So is being a daughter.
ReplyDelete