Lying between freshly ironed sheets
that smell of the ocean
air in which they hung to dry, I
think of what I
hear as hopeful whispers within
the foamy tide outside, on the beach
only feet from my window screen:
pure salt-white promises echo across the miles
as faithful waves keep rocking like a Mother
soothing her Babe in arms.
I’m only a child myself, yet I know
the power of water to drown sorrows and sins
and to bring reassurance of redemption.
Margaret Adams Birth is the author of Borderlands (Finishing Line Press, 2016); her poetry has also appeared in such journals as Riverrun, Ship of Fools, The New Voices (Trinidad and Tobago), Aldebaran, Atlantic Pacific Press, Purple Patch (England), White Wall Review (Canada), Mobius, Black River Review, Perceptions (her poem there a Pushcart Prize nominee), Blue Lake Review, All Roads Will Lead You Home, and The Wild Goose Poetry Review. She is extensively published in short fiction and nonfiction, as well, including under the pen names Maggie Adams and Rhett Shepard. She is a permanently professed member of the Secular Franciscan Order, and recently finished a 7-year period serving her Parish Pastoral Council. Visit her Facebook author page.