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family life
October 2008 
a mother's prayer
Posted on Dec 9th, 2007
by 
Amanda
Amanda
every time I feel a stab of me-ness or urgent resentful-ness
the world turns and burns and slides away beneath me
felling me, body and soul
this town I've known since childhood
more like a city now but still quiet, still secret
now swirling in deception and violence
families horrified
praying
perhaps known to me
friends, relatives, old classmates
torn down and bleeding
left to die in a parking lot
at home I breathe gently, deliberately
trying not to cry
then lift my children as they sleep
to my shoulders
feeling the painful ache swell inside my ribs, tunneling towards my throat
I stay, I wait
holding my babies with gentle strength
praying to all things beautiful and graced with pity
keep them
keep them here
the world turns and burns and slides away beneath me
felling me, body and soul
this town I've known since childhood
more like a city now but still quiet, still secret
now swirling in deception and violence
families horrified
praying
perhaps known to me
friends, relatives, old classmates
torn down and bleeding
left to die in a parking lot
at home I breathe gently, deliberately
trying not to cry
then lift my children as they sleep
to my shoulders
feeling the painful ache swell inside my ribs, tunneling towards my throat
I stay, I wait
holding my babies with gentle strength
praying to all things beautiful and graced with pity
keep them
keep them here
Access: Public
amazing wonderfully deep, grounding like bass tones and deep breathing
wow…again.
Thank you. This was painful to write but I seriously appreciate your encouragement.
This says much about you as a mother, and a poet.