by Amrutha Pradhu
The Tiny Yours, Beating
The wailing ambulance is pregnant with us.
Your mother whispers into my ears,
The fright is intense, yet I am lost in the harmony
Of our racing breaths and the tiny yours, beating.
The harshness of the nurses surges against
My eardrums, my broken body filled with night and cold.
The referral slip in my hand trembles; says Caesarian Section.
My fingers search and find again your mother’s,
Fitting perfectly, just like the first time we met.
In this moment, the pain still carves a small joy on our faces: You.
Goodness Olanrewaju Ayoola is a Nigerian poet and teacher of English who reaches out to poetry as escapism from the contentions within and around him. His poetry appeared recently in Hellebore, Mainsqueeze, Querencia, Periferias Journal and elsewhere. He is a Best of the Net Award Nominee and author of Meditations (WRR, 2016). Say hi to him on @GoodnessLanre.
Amrutha Prabhu, a computer engineer, discovered her love for poems and art in her mid-30-ies. Having worked as a software developer for more than 13 years, she strongly feels that life’s most meaningful things are not things. A nature lover and cooking enthusiast. She considers herself fortunate to be an Indian and values her rich culture and heritage. Of all roles that she plays, she feels, being a learner – most enjoyable, being a mother – most challenging, and being a woman – most vulnerable. Her love for learning, art and poems found home at Haiku, Haiga and related Japanese forms of poetry. She has several of her works published in reputed journals. She is a kind of person who makes little happy notes of moments that makes life worth living. Most of the times it is arrested through her poems and paintings; or expressed through food. She believes at 80, she might be cherishing these little happy notes that made her days.