Adjustment <br /> <br />My children have been words. Words were children. <br />Phrases fat and thin that lined the fragile field. <br />Verbs, nouns, adverbs caught flirtatiously; <br />Thoughts just fancied. <br /> <br />Than the slow half-recognition and <br />An act of love: <br />“I cannot leave you, cannot snuff you out; <br />Unformed you lie, remembered kisses <br />And caresses.” I could not reject, <br /> <br />So consummation and the rarer spark <br />That gave you form <br />And me the will to pen <br />Would fill the field <br />And grow tumultuously: limbs, organs, eyes and speech <br />And flowering personality. <br /> Once born, that burden’s mine… <br /> And mine no longer. <br /> <br />Now… the womb within me <br />Swollen waits to give me not a <br />Phrase, a poem or philosophy. <br />It swells with life! <br />Now uttered thoughts <br />Will be an animal <br />Of warmth, pulsating flesh, such <br />Speech and longings that no one yet <br />Conceived in words. So faced with this <br />Reality, my words have gone. I wait <br />For more substantial life. And yet <br /> Once born, the burden’s mine…. <br /> And mine no longer.<br /><br />Linda Hepner<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/adjustment-a-poem-for-pregnancy-2/
