Trish Ayers

THE CRADLE

Aphrodite rests her head
cradled in the cast-iron bathtub.
Water caresses arms, legs,
belly rolls.

She reaches for a towel,
a wedding gift 27 years ago.
It pillows her
knotted neck muscles.

As she washes birth scars
she tries not to regret loss
of once firm breasts, taunt stomach,
sculpted legs.

Concerns of bills, grown children
and aging parents melt
as she gazes
through the skylight above.

Maple branches fluffy with snow
wave in a soft wind.
Aphrodite dreams--
winter's movement rocks her to sleep.

Trish Ayers is an essayist and award winning poet and playwright. Her poems have been published in Poetry as Prayer, Appalachian Women Speak, Appalachian Women's Journal, The Appalachian Connection and are part of the theatrical piece, Mountain Women Rising and were in the 2007 New Mummer's Exchange program in NYC.