in defense of losing it

If I hadn't broken down,
hadn't broken open,
if I hadn't cried,
let the failure and
frustration spill over
where he could see it
(which has always
felt to me
like more failure),
he might not have
risked crawling
out of bed,
wrapping his arms
around my waist,
resting his head on
my belly and saying
he loved me --
might have missed
that thin place
where we do the
real work of being
human together
in God's hands.

quickening

I felt you move this morning.
Me still in bed,
still and quiet
while you rolled and spun,
stretching and testing
your warm dark home.
Your brothers do this too:
spin, roll, and test
while I am trying to rest --
you fit in already.
Do you know how
happy you have made me?
Even if this is all
we share
(I have learned
to take nothing for granted)
it is enough.

[mid-July 2012]

interwoven

By law, only one of us
is granted 'personhood'
(as though it were
the law's to give)
but who could separate us
without breaking both?
Interdependence
is a dirty word in some circles,
and yet it is the mystery that sustains
both host and guest:
We are two and one.

[early July 2012]