At fourteen
What did I know of love
Or lasting relationships
Only that my belly began to swell
With a baby
That I prayed for every night
My mother forced me to have it
Taken out
Taken away
Empty like a deflated balloon
I stopped praying
And I never risked having
My uterus fill up again
With life
I didn’t trust that a child
In all its perfection
Could be born
From all my broken pieces
—

Rebecca Chamaa loves to walk, write poetry and bake.  She has been published by San Diego Writer’s INK, Hallmark, Evangel, Christian Women Today, The Secret Place and others.