I wrote this poem in 2011, but haven’t posted it since 2012, and felt it was time to share again:

The Longing Arms

Emptiness
filled now and spilling
when arms hold
and hush the
long anticipated one-
sweet love requited.

Did I know
how empty they were-
my arms, heart-
before you?
You laughed at the emptiness
and swallowed it whole.

…of the wind
she is, a soft kiss
mystery
come alive
the eyes and face of those with
thin, motherless arms.

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This poem is in a form called the Shadorma, with the following syllabic structure in each stanza: 3-5-3-3-7-5.

I wrote this poem as I recalled my own experience of becoming a mother, and end the poem with a thought about the many children who have no one to hold them.

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