Robert Bellam Poet Free verse

The Pearl and the Oyster

My gift on treasured shoulders lay
     Touch him, roll him, kiss his breast
      But know, you're not his first

      I too came to love this bit of shell
      This tiny structure, set upon my pink cushions, soft as day
      Together, we lay in watery depths, hidden within translucent light

       At first, its birth unwanted
       I tried to shed this growing thing
       In time, I came to know this silent child, held fast within me

       He grew in circlets, brightness in its unseeing eyes
       I shielded him from the outside world
       This thing, my own, my special orb

       Then one day a metal bite
       Fingers entered and felt my child
       A rip, a tear and then I lost

       My orphaned one, bound on knotted string
       His future lie, on slender necks
       Adorned by a lover's gift

       Now, I a tiny thing, a bit of shell
       Placed upon pink cushions, soft as day
       To wait and grow, until I too, can be touched
       And kissed upon a loved one's throat

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