[PastorStephanie]

"Can a mother forget her child?
Can a woman forget the baby at her breast?
Yet even if these forget..."

Years have swallowed up all semblance of time
Engulfed in the waves of the ages.
My memory is jaded- sketched and filled in by assumptions and wishes

Shadows seem familiar- laughs, inflections and faces.
I catch a glimpse in the mirror- of a woman-
I scarcely have met, yet know.

Can a child forget her mother?
Can a baby forget the womb in which she grew?
Yet even if these forget…

Years could not wash away, her emotions etched in stone.
Buried and fossilized with the passage of time.
Her memory is hidden in permanence by nine months of knowing.

Frozen in time- a piece of her severed- separately growing.
A memory plays like an old broken record-
of a baby she bore yet knew not…

"Can a mother forget her child?
Can a woman forget the baby at her breast?
Yet even if these forget…
I shall never forget my own."