What She Gave
She made life in her body and it came
Into the world, first Jacob, after gripping
Hours of hard labor, reaching for his name,
Transverse and wrapped umbilically, dripping
C-section blood and gasping blue for air
Up into good APGARs when cut from her,
Then, after seven years of secondary
Infertility, big Noah, sure
Of himself from the start and reaching to
The nipple the way memory calls out
To love, each one a proof of what holds true
As I go stumbling through days filled with doubt.
Sons, she gave each of you your first, shocked breath.
You carry that within you, far beyond her death.
• • •
David J. Rothman’s most recent book is Learning the Secrets of English Verse, a textbook co-authored with Susan Spear. His next will be The Radio Poems, forthcoming from Middle Creek Press in summer 2025, which includes poems for public occasions that he wrote for Colorado Public Radio as the network’s Resident Poet in the 2010s.