Category: Mothers

The World Calls Me Mother

~ Karoline ~ Leave a comment

Half-drowned in fogs
I hear their call –
“Mama!” – the hoarse, insistent cry
– “Mama!” – beyond the bedroom wall.

Crawling the length
of wrinkled sheets
I sit, propped on an aching hand
and strain my ears to hear – just geese – 

arrowing northward
overhead.
Uncalled, I turn; work sleepily
back into warmth and the rumpled bed.

Yet after all –
why not? Does now
the world live motherless, unlike
its opening days? Then how

was she, bone-made,
first named
and – surely not with careless word –
mother of all that lives proclaimed?

October 31, 2020

Photo by Ian Cumming on Unsplash

Newmade

~ Karoline ~ Leave a comment

Wrapped in my womb and under my heart I took you outside tonight
to let the stars shine on you.

I breathed green night air and I stepped on green wings
and I let the stars shine on you.

I walked past the horn of a crescent moon and the sharp blue eyes of the sky
to let the stars shine on you.

I wondered your name and I strained my heart –

– to hear –

– perhaps –

your newmade soul –

and I let the stars shine on you.

Luxury

~ Karoline ~ Leave a comment

When I was young,
so very young,
and I had all the world and time
for every venture,
for every fancy’s flight,
still
I never had enough.

Now,

I cram an hour in an instant,

And luxury is easily found.

Light

~ Karoline ~ Leave a comment

Bare feet on carpet,

slow steps and loosened hips, belly round with unborn child –

Like some household high priestess I unwrap the morning light,

unfold it out of curtains, shake it loose, and wait.