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.
The Zingara Project 