MOM DAD WAR AND GRACE
Just the very thought of him, like an artist’s stroke of his
Paintbrush, sealed a promise of a lifetime of tomorrows.
I finally had found myself and, knew my purpose in life.
The instant you were within sight, your brass insignia
Flashing and reflecting in the noonday sun,
Your proud salute, your handsome face, your stiff
Somewhat inward arched back which I stroked every night,
Invoked ripples right now, which ran up and down my spine, the
Way you held your sword, straight and unwavering towards the skies.
My husband, my colonel the youngest most decorated, admired man
On this army base, and what a lover, little did they know.
Lingering, touching, stroking tantalizing and titillating me,
Beyond the boundaries of the moon and stars, and our infinite galaxy.
I listened to the rhythm of my heartbeat, I had fallen in love with love.
The parade came to an abrupt end as the sirens sounded for to us
To rush to our underground shelters, Duncan ran to me and
Protectively covered my very pregnant tummy with his jacket,
That is when I saw, felt and experienced the ground shake
Beneath me as a bomb blasted into the now empty parade field.
We entered the shelter and Duncan immediately took me into
His arms – Iris, sweetheart are you OK, he asked quizzically as he glanced
Down at my tummy with his magnetic blue eyes. I hoped our baby
Would have his eyes, we sat on the floor as WW ll raged
Above us .
Suddenly I got a mysterious cramp followed by another
15 minutes later and subsequently by another one. We timed them.
What were we going to do???! Word went around a pregnant lady was in
Labor in the shelter. A middle-aged bald man stood up, I’m the one to help, of
Course it was our camp’s doctor, Captain Docks.
Two women offered to assist him and scouted in the sparse shelter for
towels and bowls. Touchingly, many sheltered people tore their garments to be used as towels.
Fortunately there was running hot water. Except for some unavoidable screams, I was relatively quiet and an hour and a half later, a baby’s cry rang out joyfully, to the clapping and gleeful voices of everybody present.
And so Grace was born, not letting us forget that she arrived in the middle of WW ll with loud bombs showering towns, country estates, and Historic buildings exploding on impact, leaving blood-stained pavements, battered country estates, destroying apartments and historic buildings on impact, injuring hundreds sometimes thousands of people, left wailing, screaming, burning, the dead had died on impact, scattered as far as the eye could see like rubber balls.
This was the horrific reality of when and how our beautiful daughter was born, during the bloody result of any War, Grace was everything I expected, she also had a curly mop of black hair like me, and her father's electric blue eyes.
We were a family, our lives now complete.
Copyright © Jennifer Proxenos | Year Posted 2024
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