What's To Come

by Patricia Knight Meyer
​Mother gone
New arms
Chubby toes tickled
First yours, then theirs
Your daughter’s
Your grandsons’
Wiggling, giggling


Adopted Daddy sings Fats Domino
Breathing hard
Gasping
Lungs ache and hearts break as he passes


A lost father returns,
Pulling a frayed tapestry back into place
To stand in the other’s stead
Beaming, coughing


He too gasps for air, not there
He too is sucked away from you
Eventually, all the men leave
Only baby boys remain
Laughing, taunting their GiGi


But first.
Mommy’s last breath ushers in the return
of the one she replaced
Haste will waste the reunion
Hour-glass sands long trickled past
Lives resigned and consigned, separate again
Time won’t heal all wounds


The baby, she will cry from deep within
For the mother neither woman could have been


A 50-year-old reflection asks, "Who are you?" in a Costa Rican mirror
Moments before the pen meets the page to begin your story


Then a masked world collapses
Everyone seeking that breath
Their first, their last, and all the ones in between


Bio:  A baby-scoop era “adoptee” and advocate for adoption reform, Patricia Knight Meyer writes and speaks publicly about managing relationships post-reunion, as well as growing up as a black market baby. She speaks at adoption conferences, blogs at www.myadoptedlife.com, and admins several online groups, including the Adoption Constellation Search and Reunion Support Group on Facebook. Her reunion video with her birth father has 287,000 YouTube views.

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