(for "Leah")
Little Sweet One
Mine for one inexplicable instant
Hovering over my upturned palm
Like a distracted hummingbird
Pausing on the journey
From your first mother to your forever mom
The absence of you
Is tangible in my now empty arms
And I wonder whether you will recognize the songs
I sang to you
If you should ever happen to hear them again
And I wonder whether you still carry the name
I gave to you
Or if, like the umbilical stump
That fell off in my hand,
It has been cast aside–
Another relic left you by a woman
No longer your mother