Dear Mama, it's me
Your handsome son
Here's a letter for you
A very special one
Dear Mama, it's me
Your beautiful daughter
I'm sending you a letter
A message like no other
My love is still with you
I wasn't a dream
I know you miss me
Your tears are seen
It was my only purpose
Just to be with you
That was enough of a goal
And that is so true
The world didn't know me
But Mama that's okay
It was enough for me
Within you to stay
I am a part of you
I always will be
I am not gone
From your memory
We had something special
And it's okay if you cry
No one else has to know
Just you and I
Thank you Mama
For all the love you gave
For the heartache you welcomed
When I went away
Thank you Mama
For wanting me
Our love will live on
For eternity
© Ruby Neumann
Poet's Note: Written January 18, 2022
I wrote this poem in response to a story that I heard on a grief podcast. The story compelled me… it was a grandpa sharing the story of losing his granddaughter the day she was born. He also shared that his wife (the grandmother) also lost a baby boy weeks before term. Losing her granddaughter brought back the memories of losing her son.
This story hit home when I discovered that I knew these grandparents and they were very special people in my life. I sent two copies of the poem to my friend. One for her "from" her son, and one for her daughter-in-law "from" her granddaughter. It is the same poem with two different first stanzas.
I feel almost too brave when I write poems like this. Who am I to write from the perspective of that which is unknown to me. I have never carried a child in my life. I was a child, but I made it through my Mom's birth canal to go on and live. I have never cried those kind of tears. My mother didn't cry those kind of tears for me.
I am grateful at the response I got from my friend.
"Thank you so much for the beautiful poem. Truly .... a precious gift, Ruby. I just never considered some of the sentiments you expressed. 'It was my only purpose just to be with you' .... that was powerful.
You are so right ... no one else can understand the depth of the loss of one's pre-born child."
I would hope that every mother that cries those kind of tears... would be embraced with the awareness that it was enough for that baby just to be with Mama. That was enough purpose. There was enough fulfillment in that child's life just to be carried for a while.
