On Your Third Night in the NICU

Here is the great matter:
that whatever I plant
it is not roses that bloom

My sister's child,
that angelbaby blinking slowly as a cow,
that fat cheeked cherub,
was never to spring from my chalice
placed upside down upon the earth

I will take you from the legs
of an entowered princess
She knows of dragons
She knows of spells
She knows of want
I cannot undo it

And you will scream for her
from the want
But I have been greedy too

Here, stolen child,
be comforted

I am there in your gums
Red as the promise of a dragonbaby
Caterwauling
Mauling maw at incompetent nipples
I am wailing with you

We will bloom like wild roses
like cummings' heaven of blackred roses
Ransom for beasts
and broken as spells
and dangerous as loving
and sure as the moon