I Held You There So Long
I held you there so long
creased and furrowed
streaked in the white wax of birth
wrapped tight
in the warmed cotton cloth
against me.
We were given
an hour’s recovery
together and absolutely alone.
Absorbed into the building walls
the nurses and aides and doctors vanished.
Your mother enchanted them all with her,
and left us utterly
to our first conversation.
Row after row of cloth drawn walls
empty like a city in the middle of the night
silent and completely ours.
We talked and you wriggled free
your arms an Italian
needing them for the conversation.
Freeing yourself in that first hour
I knew it then,
as I struggle with it now
to unwrap myself
from that embrace.
Lansing
August 31, 2001
East Lansing Series
©2001 I Held You There So Long — Joseph W. Yarbrough
Reproduction prohibited without written permission.
creased and furrowed
streaked in the white wax of birth
wrapped tight
in the warmed cotton cloth
against me.
We were given
an hour’s recovery
together and absolutely alone.
Absorbed into the building walls
the nurses and aides and doctors vanished.
Your mother enchanted them all with her,
and left us utterly
to our first conversation.
Row after row of cloth drawn walls
empty like a city in the middle of the night
silent and completely ours.
We talked and you wriggled free
your arms an Italian
needing them for the conversation.
Freeing yourself in that first hour
I knew it then,
as I struggle with it now
to unwrap myself
from that embrace.
Lansing
August 31, 2001
East Lansing Series
©2001 I Held You There So Long — Joseph W. Yarbrough
Reproduction prohibited without written permission.