Years ago, out of wedlock pregnancies were not always handled with the young mother's best interest. Many were shamed. After a conversation with a friend and hearing her reunion story, I wrote the below for her:
Emotional Abandonment
February 2005 THE BABY’S HEEL Nine months of pregnancy Your birth And I touched the heel of your foot Briefly
That’s all that I knew of you for twenty-nine years
In my day
“They” said this way was best for everyone We birth mothers entered a fictitious name on the form “Protective measures” And you were out of my life and taken to better circumstances
Only physically
For twenty-nine years
My life went on with other events, other people But that brief touch haunted my every day
My baby boy
I thought about you
Prayed for you Wondered about you
My little son
I never saw your face I only had that touch
Where did you live? What were you like?
My first child
I lived on that one single, solitary, brief touch of your heel
Until the day
You came looking for me
That colossal memory gave birth to a beautiful man
With a compassionate heart, A sweet face, And a beautiful name.
Michael.
(Adoption) | 
