Tag: motherhood

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.

Snowfall

~ Karoline ~ Leave a comment

My back against cold cinderblock –

my six weeks’ babe in arms –

while through the triple window
over wood and waxy leaves
snow falls in slant surprising lines –

And from the big bright room outside,
words too
fall
weighted with a wonderful surprise:

“Thou son of David –
Joseph! –
Fear not.

The virgin is with child.”

Of Many Lands

~ Karoline ~ Leave a comment

So you have seen the Taj Mahal,
Strolled through Paris arrondissements,
Lingered in the light of Chartres’ rose, and
Danced in tropic rains.

While I – ?

Well, I
have curled in the confines of one room,
fed, rocked, guarded, sung and prayed

for one new soul.

But perhaps –

after all, my friends –

I have traveled just as far as you.