Capacity and Momentum

My eyes pause in awe

at my son’s huge knobby knees

solidlanky

delicate

iron sinew

resting carefree over the back of the green sofa.

They are angular and hard,

seemingly at some precipice,

like fruit on the brink of ripening.

His body gathering momentum

for the great journey of fulfilling

his full grown body.

We are waiting

for the pungent smell of ripe paw paws

on late summer trails.

Waiting for a vaccine

Waiting to “go back to normal”

But life as we knew it is gone.

These little bodies

are gathering energy

and don’t wait for nothing.

Each new sensation of motherhood

calls to mind the extreme

reaches of our emotional capacity,

which must be the exact

and immeasurable, mirrored and parallel

depthof the entire universe.

Subtleties that propel me to the edges of the farthest stars

in a single glance towards knobby knees.

Poem by Merenda Cecelia

Fish image by Shannon Leighty

Background illustration Maurice Sendak

Photo of my son Justin Sizemore