A true story
No one came with flowers
no one came with pink
balloons or candy
no one brought pink dresses
to fit a new born –
Mother, she knew
No one believed
or wanted to see a child
who entered this world
a little over a pound –
medical men told her,
“She won’t survive the
night.”
Mother, she knew –
she knew when two men
visited
knew only one – but
knew of the other
one man sat to her right
one man to her left.
These visitors did not
bring balloons or candy
or a pink dress for their
new grand daughter –
a baby who would fit into
their palm –
a baby with tubes in
temples –
a body to small and
needles too large
both men died before
the birth of her child
her father spoke to her,
her father in law
listened. . .
“Don’t worry she will
survive and make you
proud.”
Medical men entered
her room and mother
smiled.
Medical men warned
her – “Babies this small
do not survive.” –
Mother, she knew –
Daddy entered her room
she smiled.
told him their little girl
would survive
he pulled a chair up to her
bed, held her hand, and
listened. . .
He probably smiled back
he must have warned her
to face the truth –
mother, stubborn,
she believed.
A few days passed,
the medical men told her
again –
a week went by, and she
smiled –
two weeks, the medical
men stopped talking of
death –
Mother peered through
glass at her baby –
lying inside a metal box –
inside with tubes and monitors
with no one to touch a child’s
grey skin.
She watched as a chest
was forced to expand
she prayed to herself –
she waved good bye –
thanking the Medical men –
telling them she would be back
every day – to watch a child
who barely opened her eyes.
There was no touching,
or cuddles, no wrapping
of tiny fingers around her own,
no legs kicking, or laughing
when a child yawned, thinking
it was a smile
no one talked about their
little girl –
no one asked about the color
or her hair – her eyes or her
personality
no one asked if she looked
like mother or father . . .
no one talked.
Mother, she believed.
Every day – from summers
end into dead leaves of fall
onto ice on city walks,
she walked up a hill
to the hospital to stare
through glass –
her walk home – eyes filled
with tears, she recited an
Irish prayer.
Every day after work
father walked up the hill
to stare at his child he
could not hold –
laying naked inside a metal
bed with tubes still
attached to her forehead.
He watched as nurses
tapped the soles of her
feet – to keep her awake
to suck on a miniature
bottle – she began to eat . . .
It was the day before
Christmas – a snow
filled sky – when news
arrived – she could come
home.
Three months and ten
days after her birth
she weighed five pounds –
nurses wrapped her
in tiny booties
a white undershirt
a small pink dress – now
snuggled up inside pink
blankets
with open arms – mother
held her little girl
peered into her open eyes
pinched her little hands
and feet.
Mother, she knew
On Christmas day inside a
neighbor’s car they brought
their little girl home.
Mother looked at my father
and said, “I told you so,
she would survive.”
It was beneath their
Christmas tree – laying
inside a red wagon –
my older brother next to me
a red bow tied around my
forehead –
Christmas and I finally
made it home.
Mother, she knew.
Nancy Duci Denofio – all rights reserved @2011