Billowing Curtains

Sitting on the toilet, the fresh September night wind floats the brown floral curtains in fulsome billows, and you are crying for me, in a broken, midnight wail: soft. A moment ago, I had scurried upstairs to respond to your plaintive waking. Soft night terror: Something had woken you up, and you clutched me tight and feverishly- we pressed torsos together as we hadn’t done since you were infant co-sleeping bedmate. Relaxed immediately, from fear to comfort, breathing and sleeping into sleep. I could stand there and hold you forever, , rocking side to side like a gentle boat and remembering our puzzle piece interlocking, but I knew I know if I bring you into our bed you will fight and arch to get back into your own equilibrium. So I place you gently down into your crib, and you fuss and pull into your new comfort: Water: Water Bottles: at least two. Full, and please with ice “in there”. Not one but two, clutched to your chest, and I leave brokenhearted, to sit on the toilet and listen to you softly chant, Momeeee. Mommmeee- an idea but not really a request. Not: mama. Not the open ended Mama of your first utterances of the idea. Somehow over the months I have moved from source to object. Momeeeeee. With the winnowing of your tongue comes the muscle of ownership. Mom. Me. Mine and Mine and Mine. You are mine, as we grow towards our own separate, desperate longing for each other.