mermaid's prayer

                They lift
their globed bellies
nestled in their hands
as they sink slowly
below the waterline,
singing their lullabies
to the unborn bobbing
in amniotic nests. 

                 Swimmers,
swimming and brimming
with swimmers.

                 The sun
has barely risen, and
they have come
in hopes that water
pressing and lifting them
in buoyant warmth
will turn their babies
from breech to vertex.

                 In silent
witness I lay my head
against my knees. 

Liz McFadzean

Mermaids are all the rage these days.  My little granddaughters are obsessed with them.  Charlotte, the redhead, has a close affinity to Ariel. Any Disney princess is big stuff in that house, but those girls travel with mermaids…little dolls with fish tails ride in their car seats with them.

So you can see why I thought of mermaids when two very pregnant women from our church asked to use my pool at 7 AM one recent morning.  Both were carrying babies in breech position and had read that swimming somehow could “turn” their babies.  Handstands in the water are supposed to be particularly effective.

I didn’t see any handstands that morning.  It was very chilly, and though my pool was heated, I thought they were game to even get in the water.  But in both cases, something worked.  Both babies have turned head down.  Please pray for safe deliveries for these beautiful women.