After the First Child, the Second
for Chris Martin
To you
through whom
these sudden days
blowse & hum
thirst & quench
a tide of tensing trees
days tick by
beats in a song
my body grows
fuller each day
I think my life
has always been
for this quiet
darkness
your forehead
& eyelashes
face pressed
to my breast
your skin a texture
electrifying
my fingertips
wool on cotton
wool on glass
the fibers rise
& I can’t sleep
for being alive
Copyright © 2016 by Mary Austin Speaker. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 12, 2016, by the Academy of American Poets.
“‘After the First Child, the Second’ was composed when I was about twelve weeks pregnant with my second child. I felt suddenly that I should write as many love poems for my husband as possible in the window of time before the next baby absorbed both of us entirely. My poems are, I think, always at their best when they are urgent.”
—Mary Austin Speaker
Mary Austin Speaker
Mary Austin Speaker is the author of The Bridge (Shearsman Books, 2016).