Sunday, June 8, 2008

Unexpected

For Writer's Island
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Colors

Blue and trucks,
racecars.
No pink, certainly.

Convinced you are a boy,
Dominic Derek.
Who can argue
with the needle test?
And a slow heartbeat?
And that thing
we saw
when you moved
during your ultrasound?

We knew you were a boy,
a new little snowboarder,
a fisherman.
There you were in your father’s arms,
love dripping from his eyes.

My little girl
now a mother
gathered in my arms
sharing the knowledge
of labor and pain
and birthing a son.

Big eyes,
a smile full of wonder,
words that float
in the air
but don’t penetrate.
“Mom, it’s a girl!”

A girl?
My ears are ready
for blue words;
they don’t comprehend
these pink birds
fluttering,
fluttering,
finally finding a home
in my heart.

Ruffles and dolls
Mother
Daughter.
Mother
Daughter.

7 comments:

anthonynorth said...

As the father of 5 boys and 2 girls, I can get a glimpse of how this feels :-)

Stan Ski said...

You can't believe everything you 'hear'.

paisley said...

surprised at birth??? love it.. i miss the days we used to get to guess what the baby was and how much it would weight and all of that... i know preparedness rules now... but i still kind of miss the old way....

congrats grammy....

Anonymous said...

Wonderful thoughts. Thanks for posting this!

witchcraft

Pirate Princess said...

I sooo get this - so enjoyable Linda!

Tammy Brierly said...

Linda, this was a delightful poem. I watched my daughter give birth and it changed me. I can't wait for a grandaughter with four grandsons. ;)

Anonymous said...

Yes congratulations and nice poem.......they told me my first was a girl and I KNEW they were wrong (and of course they were).

J

Linda's Poems