Friday, May 3, 2013

twoandneveranymore






I'm spun black, caught in my own mad web.  For watching my own beautiful children grow stuffs my heart in a jar.

Everyday, my eyes drink in their small miracles.  Skin stretching over bones.  Minds flying.  Fingers carving letters on paper.  My lids fluttering from the magic.  Until they sleep -- and I push my face greedily into their hair.   Breathe deeply, searching for babyness -- round faces, rolled thighs, black, shining eyes.  Reality slaps without mercy as I stand in line at the grocery store, a baby-in-bucket-mother next-in-line.  A pregnant-bellied-woman washing her hands next to me at the airport.   White heat-rising, my web pulls tight.  I see my selfish self clearly.

My twoandneveranymore children.  A phrase someone I adore used the day she realized her two, were indeed her last.   For some it's oneandneveranymore.  Others four.  And some, none.  No matter the number, the day appears.  And defines - carving lines thick and blue as veins.  And brings with it either a wave of relief, or wall of grief.  And the wonder that our days are indeed racing past us like rain.  Mytwoandneveranymore.  I swallow the words like stones.  Mytwoandneveranymore.  Mytwoandneveranymore.  My heart pushes against its own walls, sharp and thin.

I push the dull ache down to my toes, only to feel it rise bit-by-bit all day, then settle in my heart as I lie my head down at night.  The realness of their growth, a blue flame, singeing my skin.  I'm ablaze from the sheer heat of needing to be a young mom again.  Of wanting their babyness back.

Twoandneveranymore.

I mend with the truth.  Long zagging stitches.  Filling the holes from the inside out - pushing-into, stitching-up, guarding the raw spaces.  And let their smallness slip away.  I ink the smell, the feel, the memory of baby deep inside - a ball of white light hidden under my skin.  It glows.  Its warmth, a reminder to be grateful.  

My twoandneveranymore.  I am getting there.  One day at a time.



6 comments:

  1. Your words, your pictures, both breathtaking. You amaze me. I love the way you share this and can feel the emotions from you and for all of us mothers and we small those words that are so hard to accept. Beautiful!! You work, your heart, is an inspiration indeed.

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  2. Love, Love all of these! Gorgeous memories!

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  3. Jaw dropping. And I deeply felt the words...I have three and am mourning the ones I will have neveranymore. Just...perfect.

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  4. You are a good photographer and a beautiful mom of the two cute children. You took professional looking pictures. I loved this blog post and reading the article has actually made my eyes wet.

    Best wishes,
    Alison Clarke

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