For a few short moments
I held you in my arms
absorbing you, memorizing you,
pouring a lifetime's worth of love
into you.

A few short moments is all it took
for the sight of you,
the scent of you,
the innocence of you,
to triumph over the pain and the fear
of you.

In those fleeting moments, you -
who insisted on leaving my body
three weeks before you were due -
promptly made yourself at home in my heart
as though you belonged there.

"It's time." the nurse pronounced too soon,
and with helpless, wrenching sadness
I wordlessly handed you back -
back to the stranger who would take you away,
away from my world, from my love.

From that time forward,
you would belong to another mother
and a father who would care for you as their own,
who would provide for you and love you
in ways that I could not.

Time passed; days dissolved into weeks
then years, as you continued to claim
your rightful place inside my heart,
bathing it in light and love
while my tears commemorated you.

Then you, my son, suddenly reappeared in my life,
now a magnificent young man,
bringing me gifts of love and acceptance,
healing my wounded spirit and
revealing love' s triumph at last.