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| Garnet. The January birthstone. (stock online photo) |
My sonnet, "Mother's Day" was first published in First Things (Number 167, November 2006), and reprinted in Grace Notes Anthology, 2010; Quill and Parchment, May 2012; Cradle Songs Anthology; and Living Faith, Fargo, North Dakota, May 2021.
It was reprinted (with my permission) on a pamphlet distributed at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. several years ago.
It also appears in my first book, Lines of Flight.
I did not have an abortion, but I know women who have. Everyone has to make their own decisions and choices in life. I wrote this poem from the viewpoint of the baby, who had no say in the matter.
Mother’s Day
On Sunday evening after the party ends
and family have gone, you ache to say
how you can’t bear this gathering each May.
Your thoughtful husband usually sends
a rose bouquet, but changed his mind this year:
a special gift, it makes your finger shine
with emerald and ruby. Too much wine,
he banters as he wipes away your tear.
But you and I know, Mother, what he can’t –
your April foolishness; how bit by bit
they sucked me out of you, “took care of it”;
how through the years I’ve been your confidante,
the reason for this night’s unraveling –
the garnet missing from the mother’s ring.
