Poem for Jessica

Poem for Jessica

Poem for Jessica

The time for flowers has passed
and we are left with each other
the hard and the soft of it
I am your mother
nothing else is clear
between you and me.

I take you out in the sun
pale grub
dug out of dark earth
birth sadness seeps in.

Your soft breath flickers and
I am like an eye
closing against pain
a progression of faces,
all of them,
none of them, yours

We are like reeds by the sea
a lattice only
at the whim of storms, the seasons,
a basket holding sky,
at times empty.