to nurse

To tend,
or worry over,
in the case of wounds.
At a hospital,

to do a job,
a shift,
to lift and turn,
to measure, prod
and watch.

Here, in this darkened
room at dawn
it is love.
To give my
self, be emptied
and then filled

by the round
of her cheek, the
grasp of her tiny
fingers,
her weight in my lap,
content.

first communion

To be, in my body,
the answer
to her cry,
the satisfaction
of her need,
the provision
for her hunger,
to mother her:
my best trade.
"Take and eat --
this is my body,
given for you."