First Mother’s Day

Nine Months

They were everywhere,
dancing with clowns,
dueling with foam swords,
bopping each other
on the head with red, Read more »

About the Heartbeat

lost in pounding of
mama’s belly pulse—
first echo of life,
thin vibrato, distant
giggles, tiny chimes,
bouncy balls between
two fused grins,
the wonder of a system
that keeps this sound
safe in unanimously
known and new-found
recesses of body doubling,
body unfurling and
taking what it needs,
filling up,
pumping fuel from
and bringing light to
secrets under skins—
speeding engine, fisted battery,
paper lantern.

by Johanna DeBiase

Ultrasound

You are curled up and potential
like a Firebelly Toad beneath
a root covered in moist morning
leaves, waiting to leap to life.

Made visible, you wave little
limbs as if a bright light disturbs
your new sleep. We are in well-lit
waiting rooms or sprawled on metal Read more »

Spring

More in bloom than
fruit blossoms and
willow buds, more
songs than robins
and magpies guarding
young nests, more
sweet scents than sage
on wind or earth
after rain. Invisible,
intangible, indistinct to
anyone but me, this
growing, when I laugh Read more »

Sometimes

Strength gives way to uncertainty, a faltering edge light
is meant to walk upon, no longer controlling but
now channeling a mass entity of tides and
probability where there is an open end
for all results to culminate through
and ceaseless worry to
either exasperate or
disintegrate.

-Johanna DeBiase

Poetry

I’ve decided to add some poetry to this blog mix. While preggers, I wrote lots of poems, perhaps in anticipation of how few I would write later. I put them together into a chapbook to share with friends. I will post one at a time here, intermittently,  in the order they go in. If anyone is interested in getting a complete copy of the chapbook titled, Gestation, contact me here and I will send one off to you.