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Ruth Chad is a psychologist who lives and works in the Boston area. Her poems have appeared in The Aurorean, Bagels with the Bards, Connection, Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England, Constellations, Ibbetson Street, Montreal Poems, Muddy River Poetry Review, Lily Poetry Review, Amethyst Poetry Review and Writing in a Woman’s Voice, pending on October 23/22. Ruth’s chapbook, The Sound of Angels, was published by Cervena Barva Press in 2017. Ruth was nominated for a Pushcart prize in 2021.

Ruth Chad

A Mother’s Journey

You were nub of heart
essence of the word—

I carried you deep within me
your slender lungs
reaching for air

each glimmering line
linking bone to tendon
action to response

And I, always on my journey.

In the way of silkworms
I wove silken thread
the warp and weft

morning and night
substance from inchoate being
and carried you

a slim new reed
raw and tender
to wave and bend in wind

but never wilt
I gave what I found
nurtured what needed me

You were nub of heart
essence of the word

— Ruth Chad

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