Today's poem is by Bunkong Tuon

Letter To My Unborn Son
        (for Rithy)

I can tell you about strength.
                How the sun warms our skins.
How the moon turns tides.
                The way your mother abstains
from coffee, watches what she eats.
                Her body a temple in your honor.

And I can tell you about beauty.
                The bird with red bushy tail
skips from rose bush to rose bush,
                sings sweet melody for all to hear,
unhinged by the joy of morning light.
                Your sister caresses her mother's belly,
presses her red cheek on it and listens,
                whispers tenderness to baby brother.

But when the white dove spreads
                its wings and soars over the hospital,
and the leaves are still, and the day glows soft bright
                like baby skin, and you dear heart, shake from
exhaustion your journey into light, oh how
                my body trembles with the weight of you.

Tweet
Copyright © 2024 Bunkong Tuon All rights reserved
from Shō Poetry Journal
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission