My mind hovered over my baby, like 
a raptor, and froze everything it saw. 
I looked through my own pregnant belly's raw 
perimeters and found his heart to strike 
attentive until, helpless with the pound 
of still more blood, he seemed to settle down. 
It was my loss to feel like god alone 
for a new one always listening, to reach 
inside for his ears to share the flying speech 
I heard so constantly. Within my grown 
silence, my sounding, my loud body where 
the baby turned, my mind learned not to care 
whether thoughts I felt he noticed with no fear 
were mine alone—or whether he could hear.
My Raptor
written byAnnie Finch
© Annie Finch


 



