I Stand Here Holding

Project Write World Entry: Picture Prompt (Woman and baby)

I Stand Here Holding

I stand here holding you
as if you were my own.
Your hair like mine,
is dark and shiny.
No one needs to know
how your tiny hands,
your sweet smell, tug
my heart and soul.

I would take you home,
you know, and love you
with every beat of this heart
that thumps, but gently,
so as not to wake you. 
My breath goes out and in
while yours goes in and out;
our bodies in conversation. 

You cannot speak
but I know you are wondering
things I cannot answer. 
Where is she?  Is she coming back?
But its not for us to know,
only know that I am here.
And you are here, now, for me to hold.
The two of us

bound in a world of need
You, for a mother.  Me, for a child.
And yet we have each other,
for this stolen moment
before you are taken to your new home
and I return to mine,
with empty arms. Hoping.
But I cannot be saddened

by the loss of what I never had
and you, my child, cannot mourn
what you never knew. Promise me,
when you meet your new mother,
let your heart beat with hers,
breathing together in your private conversation
and do not fret.  She will love you as I have,
and perhaps, you will be hers forever. 

40 Lines
SWPoet