Lucinda J Kinsinger

I Know a Mother

I know a mother who lost four children
when they were still tiny, 
their limbs and their features unformed. 
She wants badly to hold a child that is hers
if for only an hour. But she will never know 
their faces, their genders, until heaven. 

She weeps. 

I know a mother who laid her four-month-old baby 
down for a nap. When she came back
the child was gone.
My Annalise is four months old. 
I had stopped worrying about SIDS.

The mother weeps. 

I know a mother—she came to my baby shower 
with her own smiley baby. I rubbed my belly 
and hoped for a baby as happy as hers. 
Now she waits in Haiti with her two young children,
captive under kidnappers’ guns
not knowing the fate of her babies. 
We don’t even know hers. 

Does she weep? 

I know the mother of this mother. 
She prays with hot piled words and bated breath
to see her baby and her two grandbabies again. 
She wants to see their lives lived out, 
their personalities formed. 

She prays as she weeps. 

We lost our first baby before it was born
and I hated my body for weeks 
for failing to nurture my child. 

Only this Monday
when I took Annalise to the doctor
and he named the patches of dry skin I had noticed,
“Eczema,” I felt like a failure for failing to fix it. 
A problem so small. 

I try to stretch my mind 
big as a balloon
and wrap it around the pain of these mothers.
I cannot. Please. 
Pray for these mothers. 

9 thoughts on “I Know a Mother”

  1. I so enjoy your posts Lucinda!
    N yes, my heart aches for those dear captives…. can’t even IMAGINE the pain n suspense of their loved ones..
    Our God IS ABLE TO DELIVER…🙏🙏

  2. Why? Why? Why? Why?
    With my intellect I ‘know’ all the ‘right’ answers and have been focusing on that. But this article pierced my heart and the tears welled up as I allowed myself to feel the pain. Prayers for all mothers (and others) living with unanswered questions.

  3. I can only imagine how hard it must be for family members especially the mothers and grandmothers whose loved ones are they-don’t-even-know-where. Not knowing would be such a heavy grief. I pray for family members of the hostages, especially those few I know. And the parents whose children are with them, it almost hurts just to think of what they may be enduring. May the Lord have mercy! Linda Rose

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