Receiving Blankets
I have kept them
Somehow, hoarded them
over the years
These blankets that have
wrapped my newborn babies
Held my mother in her journey with Alzheimer’s
Made the bed in NICU incubator
With my dying child
These blankets I have kept
Somehow, hoarded them
over the years
The dark green throw blanket
I Wrapped myself in the weep
after night shifts in the ER
The red & purple fleece
made into forts by my children
The dusty blue wool blankets
my mother carefully sewed
ribbons around the edges of
so they wouldn’t scratch
my face as a child
These blankets I have kept
Somehow, hoarded them
over the years
The floral patterned extra thick one
That held the joy of sand castles &
sandwiches at beach picnics
The soft & slick whale tail sleeping bag
That calmed my anxious child
The striped woven blankets
from my work in Africa that became
curtains in my first home
These blankets I have kept
Somehow, hoarded them
over the years
Stand In a tall pile now
As I have pulled them together
from all the layers of making a home
With the beloveds all grown now
With the beloveds all changed now
With some beloveds deceased now
The beloveds that I
wrapped up tightly
Wrapping up the anxiety
wrapping up the grief
Wrapping up the love
Wrapped up small
As if the wrapping
could keep everything safe
As if the wrapping
Could comfort like the womb once did
As if keeping all the blankets
Over the years formed
A super hero cloak of protection
For my mama heart
This pile of blankets now
staged for donation—
Will they protect, comfort
hold tightly the stranger to receive?
Like a Universal Mother’s hug?
May receiving blankets released
wrapping up another
Provide a loving cloak of protection
May the releasing and receiving
Welcome new life and love to all of us
The blankets, the strangers and me
