Tonyia

my little girl,
i loved you so much.
i had such hopes,
sweet dreams of holding you,
playing with you,
watching you grow.

i felt you grow inside.
God had taken part of me,
and fashioned something precious,
something lovely,
exquisitely beautiful,
embodied of hope and love

but i lost you.

you were my little girl,
not to hold, never to see
unable to watch you stretch
your arms for the first time,
never to see you experience
this wide wide world.

you were taken too early,
a life, my life,
so short, so tenuous.
my stolen child,
my heart broke for loss.
when you were taken,
part of me was taken too.

—
This poem was written for my Aunt Barbara, who lost her first little girl (Tonyia) two days after she was born.