Begets A Reflection of Light
Delivery Room Promise Land
Checking your breathing, your coloring, they said mild jaundice is okay
I did not change then; I arrived and was
invited with a prismatic dawn to stay
I’d heard rosy sonnets spoken to life, but your dad interwove earth and
heavens when he took my hand
Marveled at what we hadn’t met before: delivery room promise land
Steel gates opened to pyrotechnic colors
Rousing me and
naming me among purples, silver streaks, and mothers
The crisp whites of ceiling tiles and the cherry blood
Found enclosure in a bright dewy hopefulness,
the rainbow haven after the flood
And I was neither conductor, nor creator
Rather I was the receptor for your gift of
vision, now bound to the world as an art curator
You sewed my rawness a healthy pink, curled fingers
against my skin
Given new sight the moment I breathed you in
About the Creator
A. Lenae
I'm learning how to find the heart and describe it, often using metaphors. Thanks for reading.
Reader insights
Outstanding
Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!
Top insight
Heartfelt and relatable
The story invoked strong personal emotions
Comments (4)
😭❤️ how beautiful this is!
Wow! I can see why this placed in the challenge. I’m not the biggest fan of poetry—until I read pieces like this!
Oh! Oh my gosh. I read this one aloud and nearly burst into tears at the last line. This poem gives me courage to look forward to when my own children are born. That rare feeling of new motherhood/parenthood. You make me believe I'm ready. Congratulations on placing Runner Up in the Uncommon Challenge. ❤️'d and subscribed.
The interplay of sight and color makes for a beautiful ethereal mood. The rainbow as a metaphor works marvelously, elevating the moment into the realm of the divine. The last verse, “Given new sight the moment I breathed you in,” takes my breath away, leaves the story that comes after this moment wide open and filled with possibilities. The only part that snagged my from the flow was the parenthetical “(baby),” it dropped me out of the beautiful heights and I was forced to pause and re read. Not sure why the choice perhaps something less evident, “newborn rainbow” for instance. Lovely lovely all around.