How lucky am I to be invited in to the motherhood sanctuary of tiny hands, two tooth smiles, first crooked sentences and snotty noses.

Emily Schulten wrote this touching poem:

Once, you had gills
and lived in the water

of my body. While I
planned for you, put

sugar in a dish to attract
all that’s sweet, sang

along with Billie Holiday
so you’d know sway.

But you were already
poetry, the meter

of my heart in harmony
with yours, their iambic

fits and the pentameter
of my gait, my sleeping

breath. Oh, to keep
you there, steady

beat of life and coming
to know the power

of opening your eyes.
Each day now I soothe

your skin with peony
cream where it grows

coarser by the day,
I shield the summer

sun from your eyes
and blow your tender

head where it’s become
wet from the heat, I teach

you to keep yourself
buoyant on the waves

so one day you can find
and thrive in the sea again.