Five Hundred Thousand Mothers

Stranded on a beach of sinking stones,

she whispered mute words to the ocean’s spray.

Despair matched its depths,

filled by a single tear.

Waves conjured half a million sisters,

whose emptied arms grasped

unseen ghosts to torn hearts.

Drained blood birthed stems of thorned wounds,

their flowers drowned in salt water.

Held fast by loss, they eroded,

the sound of this slow shattering

their one lullaby;

the distance between each note

eternal and infinite.

[“Half a Million Women” is a book which tells the stories 

of some of the mothers, many of whom had no choice, 
who lost their children to adoption. 
The style and tone of this poem is 

inspired by Antony Owen's exquisite collection,'The Nagasaki Elder']