"Babygirl"
(pause)
"Lady Love"
(pause)
"Beauty"
(pause)
She spoke.
"Here give me your hand."
She carefully cupped the top of my hand in her palm/tenderly placed my palm/over her/heart/it beat so strongly/it vibrated/through/each/crack.in my soul/
"Baby Love." silence.
"My heart, your heart, is love." Her fingernails caught my hot tears
My five year-old body collapsed into her chest. Her heart/ beat/ to my dry heaves. She rocked me in her arms like baby love and safety that can only be compared to the way the night sky cradles stars.
She rubbed my back in a circular motion, then up and down my spine with that hand, only a grand/mother could claim, which molded babies
into beings
She delicately stroked my hair
as I wept in her shoulder
The crease in her neck caught my tears
like a basin
It was my river
she named it Sorrow,
called it Grief
As it grew deeper
she
held my little body
tighter
her grasp
grew more
aggressive
My wails more urgent
until they faded into hiccups
There was nothing left
to succumb to
only harmonize with the river,
the flow of my tears
That river,
she named it after me, Sorrow.
Called it Grief.
That river.
That river she named it after me.
