My Raptor

My Raptor

1My mind hovered over my baby, like
3I looked through my own pregnant belly's raw
4perimeters and found his heart to strike
5attentive until, helpless with the pound
6of still more blood, he seemed to settle down.
7It was my loss to feel like god alone
8for a new one always listening, to reach
9inside for his ears to share the flying speech
10I heard so constantly. Within my grown
11silence, my sounding, my loud body where
12the baby turned, my mind learned not to care
13whether thoughts I felt he noticed with no fear
14were mine alone -- or whether he could hear.

Notes

2] raptor: bird of prey. Back to Line
Publication Notes
Eve (Brownsville, Oregon: Story Line Press, 1997): 9. Princeton University Library PS 3556 .I448 E8
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
Special Copyright

<b>This poem cannot be published anywhere without the written consent of Annie Finch or Story Line Press permissions department.</b>