Locket and Creation

Thanks to Moko Magazine for publishing two of my poems Gathering Ghosts and Giving Birth in July 2015.
You can read the published versions here Moko Magazine Poems.
Giving Birth was one of the first poems I wrote. It simmered for months in my head and was born pretty much painlessly, without putting up too much of a fight. Very few poems are like this for me.
The latest versions of the poems are below.

Locket (previously titled Gathering Ghosts)
Tonight, I gather
my ghosts in gratitude,
collective memories clutch
hands and commune
around the full moon.
Their gifts of self and love, hang
like lockets close to my heart;
Wisdom given with open arms,
not pulled like teeth from those
whose wrists are bound by fear.

Tonight, tears
flow, lapped up
by waves
of infinite hi’s
and good
byes.
The calming hand of midnight
has put all but me to bed.
Left alone with echoes,
I catch fleeting shadows
in bathroom mirror lit by stars.

I gathered my ghosts in gratitude
and pressed hibiscus memories
of time together locked
into my throat, belly and heart.

Creation (previously titled Giving Birth)
Sometimes the only babies
us women subconsciously choose
to birth are our words.

Always a late developer,
mine scratched
on pregnant pause:

And forced their
way out of
tight lips.

Wayward, untidy, they
crawled naked into
the world;

I tried to catch
and tie them in
pink bows

but they wriggled out
to play,
confident, carefree,

and I smiled when Kahlil
and others whispered
they did not belong to me.

At night they crept
into my bed
and covered

my nakedness
with their awkward
limbs.

In muted nightmares—
neglected—
they disappeared;

[Breathe out]
[Breathe in]

Today I wake
relieved
and know
even in silence
words will
always be
tightly wrapped
around me.