Silent Lullaby

    By Karen Kelsay

Not long ago I held your downy

head in the crook of my arm

and watched milky pink lips

suck from a bottle.

This morning

I lifted your daughter, tilted

her delicate head backward

and her sapphire eyes rolled open.

Butterfly lashes and infant coos

drew me nearer. Tiny nails sunk

Pretty Pony-hoofed memories

deep into my index finger,

as if to hold me in that familiar girlie gaze

which diminishes years like looking

through a remembrance book,

rocking lines from my forehead

and pacifying me with a silent

lullaby only one’s own

can sing.

© 2011 Karen Kelsay

Karen Kelsay has been published in a variety of magazines including: The Flea, The HyperTexts, The Boston Literary Magazine, The Foundling Review Magazine, Pirene's Fountain, and 14 by 14.  She is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the editor of Victorian Violet Press.