“Postpartum” a poem by Hannah Nelson
Postpartum
by Hannah Nelson
Sometimes I think about how your bones
knit together inside me,
evolving into cartilage, then something stronger.
Loose at the joints, like mine.
Even as I felt your kicks, I marveled
that those little feet would touch the ground
one day, would carry you further and further from the
nest of my arms.
Who am I when I’m not holding you?
Only carrying one soul within
me, I marvel
at the newfound emptiness I
never felt before.
Skin is fascinating, if you think about it,
elastic and regenerative, the largest organ,
enveloping our entire gory network,
knowing, somehow, exactly how to stretch.
It bounces back, mostly,
not entirely the same as before, but in the
general vicinity, at least.
Fingers at my ribs, I
lean, noticing the slight
erosion of my topography, the
softening of elements into something new,
heroic, divine.
*The acrostic “skeleton woman seeking flesh” is taken from the first line of Suzanne Redding’s poem “Personal Ad”.
This was written as part of the Oct/POEM/ber 2024 Challenge.
(Oct/POEM/ber Prompt #13: Acrostic Poem)
Hannah Nelson is a poet, singer, and voracious romance reader living in St. Louis, Missouri with her husband and two small children. Originally from mid-Michigan, Hannah completed her undergraduate studies in Music and English at Central Michigan University and holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her poems have appeared in The Central Review, Temenos, See Spot Run, Forty Eighty-Five, and Driftwood Press, and she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016.
