I’ve been thinking about trade-offs.
In a perfect world, you don’t have to choose. In a perfect world, you always make the right choice — or do you even have to make choices?
2025 gifted us with three new babies in my extended family. These new parents! So many choices! So much advice! So worried about What if we get it wrong? No do-overs!
Then, this week, The Nevermores prompt was to re-write a poem and focus on endings (among other things). Which got me thinking about Eve…
Untitled
You can glean and filter
wisdom from every book and blog
on feeding schedules, sleep
training, brain growth
and bonding and still make mistakes.
Look at Eve, combing the Tree
of Knowledge of Good and Evil,
wondering where
she went wrong with Cain.
Maybe she could have left
laundry piled, counters crumbed,
every surface dust-ladened–
Eden would not have needed
vacuuming. Cursed by Time,
her dreams dissolved–
the new world cradled in her arms
asking, just hold me.
But This Poem Needs Your Help!
What title would you give it?
⇐
© photo & draft poem, PJF
Patricia Franz writes picture books and poetry. She believes children, dogs, and sourdough have a lot to teach us about life, joy, and wonder. She has raised two boys, four dogs, and holds a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on children’s spirituality. Patricia, her husband, her Bernese Mountain dog, Bonny, and her sourdough starter split their time between the Arizona desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
Patricia, you poem resonated so deeply, both with my memories of young motherhood and gazing at how busy life is for my son and his wife with their three little ones. Ab amazing poem that captures the frantic pace and winging it that’s life with young kids. I especially love the “her dreams dissolved—/the new world cradled in her arms” because it captures the poignancy and wonder of choices made. Wow!!!
Killer last line to your poem — which is so earnest and tender. Love how you touched on the universality of parental dilemmas. Humanity!
Might your last phrase, Just Hold Me, work as the title? Still love that “Eden would not have needed vacuuming.”
Patricia, this is amazing…the universal idea of motherhood and the first mother and decisions we all have faced at some point. What a wowser of a poem. I wish I had written it. And, truth be told, I wish I hadn’t worried so much about crumbs.
I hope you are gifting this poem to the new parents. It’s sage advice.
Patricia, that is a great turn, from current-day new parents to Eve! Very nice.
As your words show us, Patricia, no matter where or when, the universe of parenthood brings uncertainty we never knew we might have. Love the thought of all the rules upended by “Just hold me.”
Love the turn this poem took away from modern parenting to Eve, to our need to care for the world. Brilliant!
Oh, beautiful, Patricia! It resonates on so many levels.
I just don’t know about a title for such a perfect poem. The words “What to Expect” came to mind. 🙂
“Just hold me” got to me. I have a 5 month old grandson who is struggling at daycare. He rarely cries at home. It sickens my heart to think how his cries are being ignored. I would hold him all day.
Our grandma/mamere hearts…
xoxo