#MIDDLEBURY
After the First Child, the Second
Mary Austin Speaker
for Chris Martin
To you
through whom
these sudden days
blowse & hum
thirst & quench
a tide of tensing trees
days tick by
beats in a song
my body grows
fuller each day
I think my life
has always been
for this quiet
darkness
your forehead
& eyelashes
face pressed
to my breast
your skin a texture
electrifying
my fingertips
wool on cotton
wool on glass
the fibers rise
& I can’t sleep
for being alive
About this poem
“‘After the First Child, the Second’ was composed when I was about 12 weeks pregnant with my second child. I felt suddenly that I should write as many love poems for my husband as possible in the window of time before the next baby absorbed both of us entirely. My poems are, I think, always at their best when they are urgent.” – Mary Austin Speaker
About Mary Austin Speaker
Mary Austin Speaker is the author of “The Bridge” (Shearsman Books, 2016). She lives in Minneapolis, where she designs books for several publishers and co-edits Society Editions, a new publication project about poetry and power.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
(c) 2016 Mary Austin Speaker. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
