I measure you by my body.
I measure you by my body.
Toes poke into my bellybutton as you feast on milk, dreaming.
You are very little, very early, and though you have been in the world
For 7 whole weeks, you are brand new to this house, this room, this bed.
Tiny toenails inch lower, midnight by midnight,
They scrabble at the scar on my belly, your bikini-cut entry to the world.
Later, I am no longer able to luxuriate naked in bed, as the summer ebbs,
and the problem once solved by blankets-to-the-chin would have smothered you as you fed,
tucked under my armpit by body and breast.
Your legs get longer, poking your toes towards warm creases in my body
where all our dreaming and planning and hoping meant you to exit your watery home.
I squeak, trying not to wake you, and quickly clothe my bottom half.
Much later, your legs get too long for this private space between us.
You tuck your feet between my thighs, and when you sleep
I untuck them and creep out of your amazingly separate room to lie in my own bed.
My new belly pushes you away from me. Milk ebbs.
You nurse, open-eyed, and then ask for some water.
Water fetched, thirst eased, I left you one night to think sleepy thoughts on your own.
To fall asleep by yourself.
And you did.
Toes poke into my bellybutton as you feast on milk, dreaming.
You are very little, very early, and though you have been in the world
For 7 whole weeks, you are brand new to this house, this room, this bed.
Tiny toenails inch lower, midnight by midnight,
They scrabble at the scar on my belly, your bikini-cut entry to the world.
Later, I am no longer able to luxuriate naked in bed, as the summer ebbs,
and the problem once solved by blankets-to-the-chin would have smothered you as you fed,
tucked under my armpit by body and breast.
Your legs get longer, poking your toes towards warm creases in my body
where all our dreaming and planning and hoping meant you to exit your watery home.
I squeak, trying not to wake you, and quickly clothe my bottom half.
Much later, your legs get too long for this private space between us.
You tuck your feet between my thighs, and when you sleep
I untuck them and creep out of your amazingly separate room to lie in my own bed.
My new belly pushes you away from me. Milk ebbs.
You nurse, open-eyed, and then ask for some water.
Water fetched, thirst eased, I left you one night to think sleepy thoughts on your own.
To fall asleep by yourself.
And you did.