Final Embrace, by Sheila Murphy

Massacre des Innocents, by Leon Cogniet (France) 1824

Final Embrace

Mother wraps fragility in tender strength.
Her terror reveals tremendous power:
alas eternal, not corporeal.

If her glance were as effective as The Lord’s 
on the pursuing Egyptians in the Red Sea,
Herod’s henchmen would have exploded into flames.

In the final embrace
she silences the cry
that will nonetheless echo 
in the eviscerated space between her arms 
and heart
until her last exhale

Sheila Murphy

Sheila Murphy, BM, MA, lives in coastal Maine and works in ministry and mental health. Her creative work features cross-fertilization between nature, poetry, photography, prayer and retreat leadership and musical performance. Balance is maintained by fiddling in a weekly Irish Session at the local pub.