Earth/Mother

©2016 by Mary Saracino

You are gone now

Ashes tucked into the earth

Compost for future flowers, trees

Seeds of all kinds and number

Like the seeds you tended in me

Mother the ache

I feel remains unanswered

You have hollowed me out

Left a cave of

Longing inside me

For the touch of your hand

The sound of your voice

The scent of your skin

I will carry this

Umbilical memory

With me all the days of my life

This now motherless-daughter

Will remember, always remember

The goodness of you

* * * * *

Mary Saracino is a novelist, poet, and memoir-writer who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her most recent novel, Heretics: A Love Story, was published in 2014 by Pearlsong Press. She Is Everywhere! Volume 3, the anthology she co-edited with Mary Beth Moser, was awarded the 2013 Enheduanna Award for Excellence in Women-Centered Literature from Sofia University, Palo Alto, CA. Mary’s novel, The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press 2006) was a 2007 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist. Her short story, "Vicky's Secret" earned the 2007 Glass Woman Prize. www.marysaracino.com