You
know
there's that
that moment when
you hold your child and
she cries and cries, sobbing in your arms
while you just wait for her to finish this endless crying, hoping against
hope that she isn't scarred for life, that you are a good mother, that no one outside this room can hear
the way she is wailing so loudly you can't believe such volume can come from someone so small and so frail that the doctor says
she is underweight and what do you feed her
but she is crying so hard that her breath catches and you worry is it asthma or something worse or can a child catch pneumonia
by just crying too much and now her body is heaving,
and your shirt is soaked through to your bra and what's this, there are tears
on your face, too
because this is all just too much, poor child, poor mother, will no one come help me in this state that must have been hours but
no, it is only two minutes, one hundred and twenty
seconds of crying which seems interminable and intolerable and my hand is
numb from patting her back and holding her oh so close my dear sweet baby won't you be still,
oh yes you will, just breathe sweetheart, there you are my dear darling daughter, there there everything's okay and mommy's here now
