Three Poems by Jodie Baeyens

 

Deliver Us from Evil-

ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ

 

My mother sits across from me

Facing East

Banishing the evil eye

She does the sign of the cross

Right to left

As her father taught her

And recites words that

Can only be passed

From blood relative to

Blood relative

Male to female

Female to male

 

It surprises me

How quickly

The prayers return

“Our father

Who art in heaven

Hallowed be thy name”

 

My seven-year-old son

Is enthralled

The prayers

Pure poetry

The prayers

Pure magic

She teaches him

 

My seven-year-old son

Sits across from me

Facing east

Banishing the evil eye

He does the sign of the cross

Right to left

As my mother taught him

And whispers words that

Can only be passed

From blood relative to

Blood relative

Female to male

Male to female

 

“On earth as it is in heaven”

 

Goddess Body

 

I’m 42 and suddenly single

after 22 years with one man

 

I stand naked

in front of my full length

bathroom mirror

body of a goddess—

a fertility goddess

 

The next person who sees these curves

these stretchmarks

these breasts uneven from babies

who all preferred the right side

to the left

won’t be the father of those children

the man expected to love those imperfections

because they were made by what we created

together

 

The next person to touch this body

to love this body

will have to love the damage

caused by someone else

 

If the one who had this body perfect at 20—

If the one who held my head as this body birthed

his babies—

If he couldn’t love it

in its perfection

who could love it now?

 

“Mommy, put the stars on.”

 

My seven-year-old asks, as

three of us settle into a

king-sized bed.

 

As if I would forget

our nightly routine.

 

His three-year-old brother

repeats him. Wearing footie

pajamas four sizes too big, so

he can be just like his brother.

 

They are my world. And

today, I am theirs.

But I won’t be. Not

when they start riding bikes

and liking girls or boys,

playing sports or joining

drama club. When they go

to High School and college.

Get married. Have families.

Travel a world I have never seen.

 

I have these moments. Maybe

a few more short years, where

I am everything. And I know

the endless possibilities that

their futures hold without me.

 

What I can’t begin to imagine

is, without them,

mine.

 

Jodie Baeyens is a single-mother, poet and teaches to support her writing habit. When she isn’t trying to find the pen she was just holding, she can be found in the forest dancing beneath the full moon. Originally hailing from New York, she now considers herself a citizen of the world because she doesn’t want to admit that she lives in a red state. Her poetry has recently been featured in Door is a Jar and in Peregrine’s Fall Journal. Her forthcoming Chapbook, Conversations We Never Had, was the Winner of the 2022 Vibrant Poet Award. Follow her writing at WWW.Mylifeincoffeespoons.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Mylifeincoffeespoons.