BIRTHED YOU SECRETLY
by OAKLEY AYDEN
I wish I’d birthed you
secretly on forest earth,
canopied in autumn warmth,
wish i’d never told a soul, that
each night i could know you slept
safe beneath the stars, pressed intact
against my breast, that padlocked
country lips i’d kept, that we
were still
love
unscathed,
easeful, sipping
sky-soaked breathe,
moon
and rest.
AUTHOR BIO:
Oakley Ayden (she/her) is an autistic, bisexual writer from North Carolina. Her poems appear in Ghost City Review, The Cabinet of Heed, Maw: Poetry Journal, Not Very Quiet, Blue Bottle Journal, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles with her two children. Find her online at oakleyayden.com.