Day 2: Longing-mark

“Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on a word featured in a tweet from Haggard Hawks, an account devoted to obscure and interesting English words.”

NaPoWriMo

My chosen tweet from March 27: “Newborn babies’ birthmarks were once known as LONGING-MARKS, because they were said to take on the shape of something desired by the mother”

A brown spot on my knee
Marks me from birth 
Circular, it embodies wholeness, continuity 
My mother, like many mothers
Longed for endless love
Accustomed to familial disconnection
And a failed marriage
She releases this longing 
Across nine months
And like honey, it seeps
From her bones into mine
And she rests easy 
And leads a simple life knowing
A warm secret is tattooed deep
Into her daughter’s skin
Like a fresh kiss 
Where it will remain
For eternity