Single Mom

She was...vivacious.
Such laughter, bubbly...
light on her feet like a pony prancing
in spring fields of barley.

She was anxious to...
give herself away.

So much love,
So much trust,
So much faith.
So beautiful.
So determined.
So alive.

"Do you take this woman
to be your lawfully wedded wife?
Do you promise to love her...
cherish her...
provide for and protect her?
Do you promise to
cleave to her and to her alone
until death alone shall part you?
So help you God?"

"I do."

He lied.

On hands and knees...
she weeps...she dies...
inside...
over...and over...and over...

Like waking up deep in a dark cave
with no one there...
all the lights are out.
Silence...darkness...

The only sound
is the fitful sobbing...
of a broken heart.

Hands reach out
staggered friends and family console...
but there is no one there.

He lied.

Then a quivering voice pierces the dark curtain of grief...

"Mom?
Mom?
Are you OK?
Mom...what are we going to do..."

Hands that now feel heavy like
iron...
brush away the tears
wraps up the child...
like it's the last hope.

For just a moment she listens
to the breathing of one forsaken.
She feels her child's body breath.

She gently holds the face in her hands.
She looks intently into the most precious of eyes.

"What are we going to do?
We are going to make it."

xtnyoda shalomed