“Sway”

My whole body rolls

As I say the word “sway”

Unlike run or sit or walk

“Sway”moves a wave through me

An arc of my hips fluidity

An instinctual rocking

Back and forth of center

An organic soothing of a child

no longer on my hips

Yet the sway feels older

than my motherhood

As if I can remember my time

In the womb, completely held

floating in the absolute love

Swaying in the universal

ocean of belonging

Formed by my mothers gait

The arc of her hips fluidity

My body remembers

with the word

“sway”

I hope my children’s bodies

Always remember they are loved

Loved by something

much larger than me

Larger than all of us

Even loved by the elephants

Grieving in sway,

Rocking back & forth over their loss

Soothing themselves together

In the arc of their hips fluidity

Poetry lives inside the word sway

Blessed be the shortest poem—

My shortest prayer “Sway”