"EN PENUMBRAS"

For my husband, Frank, remembering the birth of our son, Carl Francis on 1-23-63

              EN PENUMBRAS

I open my eyes slowly
and, above me
in a dim lit room
your eyes - moist, shining, loving
loving as I've never before seen them
People, noises, screaming, blinding lights
all now stilled
Safely held I cannot fall
My body, not my own, I cannot feel
All I need to know to keep from
being lost
is emanating from your eyes
your face, your eyes, your voice, your eyes
all saying we are beautiful
beyond all dreams
that you will never love us less but only more
and in this hushed, this shaded, sheltered place and hour
I know truth:

                (and I don't think I will ever know
            sun like the sun of your face that night)

                        that in this simple act
              of tending earth and seed and flower
                    your life, your all have given
                        to never take it back


For Frank, remembering the birth
of our son, Carl Francis, January 23, 1963

                                                            Marta Esperanza Edgcombe
                                                            February 9, 1999