I haven’t written poetry in eons, it feels like … but the other night I was so inspired I just started drafting a poem on my phone, allowing the words to just flow while I focused on the present moment with my son.

This is what I wrote. It’s not exactly some award-winning great work, but it captured the essence of how I was feeling in that moment … a moment that, not too far down the road, will just be a distant memory.

Hard to believe my baby is six months old …

six months

Tiny fingers, laced in between mine.
Warm chest rises and falls in sync with my own
We were one.

Sweet breath wisps into my shoulder
Wafts of his soft, freshly-shampooed hair
perfume my air.
We were one.

A delicate dance to your crib
(While saying silent prayers to the heavens that you stay asleep)

Ever so gently, I slip my hand from under your back
Eyelids flutter.
I see you seeing me.
Gazing, piercing through me.
Caught between slumber and awakening.
Then softly they close, and will stay closed,
Until daylight breaks.

I tuck your blanket under your chubby legs,
Cocooning you as only a mommy can, lingering simply because I can
Enveloping you with my arms.

Breathing in all of you.
Because for nine long months,
I held you in my womb;
Sustained your life.
We were one.

Eleven sleep-filled hours pass for you; six for me.

Yet I wake on my own as you begin to stir in your crib,
Listening as you blow raspberries, babble and bleat excitedly,
Greeting the day as only you can.

Even separated by four white walls,
And even though our hearts no longer echo each other’s …
We are one.