it was clear and cool that day

The kids from church came over

We dressed you in your favorite clothes 

A police car sat (ominously) 

Nearby

The caseworker (not your own)

Came to the lawyer’s rental house

Our messy home

To take you away

I believed in miracles

Moses in the bullrushes

But your dad (foster, of course)

Did not

So when she took you from his arms

He wailed.

He doesn’t cry

But that day he did

The day I last saw you through

The tinted glass

Of the woman’s beat

Up old SUV

You were my angel baby

Gone, without a trace

It was a clear blue day that day

There was a police car

Sitting  (ominously) down the block

Each print eidetic 

Etched in the raw chemistry of grief

No words,

Only me the ghost, howling out mother-love

While your new parents went out

For a celebratory dinner.