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Mothers write about their children: A poem from Marjie Giffin


Place of Peace
by Marjie Giffin

Elisabeth sleeps,
Knees curled against my groin,
My knees tucked around her toes,
My mother body
Encircling her daughter body:

Warming the nest,
Lining the next,
Nesting.

Our cheeks pressed,
Her breaths puff evenly,
Play a soft cadence
Against my skin.

The space between us
Is moist and close,

And a flutter
Of her tiny lashes
Touches, tickles lightly.

Nestled as we are,
Her slumber becoming
My poetry,
I commit the feel
Of this little one’s lifesong
To memory –

That I might at any moment
Recreate this place of peace.

Bio: Marjie Giffin is an Indianapolis writer and educator who has taught writing as an adjunct professor at IUPUI and writing/literature at a private school for gifted students. She is an M.A. graduate of Butler University in English and continues to take writing workshops as a member of the Indiana Writers Center. She is an author of four regional published histories and has her poetry published in anthologies.