Jun 20, 2006

two recent poems on being a buddhist mom

The ICN
[for Tashi]

Respirator Bubbles
Monitor flashes as IV drips
Fontanelle rises and falls.

Modern Mothering
[for mothers on the day that bears their name]

Are you ready for long term madness?
The experts agree that
Life may never be the same again.
But why attempt to step backward
When the only move possible is forward?
The Buddha and Heraclitus agree
You can't step into the same river twice.

Here is what I know
Not what I necessarily want.
There is no black market in sleep,
No method of storing calmness
No bore well of rest I can dig,
No advance of sanity to pay down.
No way, really,
To prepare for the chaos.

Mothering is
The best I can and will do,
Completely unprepared.

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