Maternal Instinct

The news struck her like a car careening on the sidewalk,

Things seemingly fine until the doc told her that life would come from her.

Immediately, fear became this unknown assailant stepping out of a dark alley,

bearing the consequences of a teenage pregnancy.

 

A warm tear falls down a face flush with a cold uncertainty on what to do next, so she cries. . . . . Calling her boyfriend and soon to be baby’s father with the fruits of unprotected sex,

hoping to find him supportive and even ecstatic about the child’s conception.

Her beckoning him with fatherhood was met with an icy reception,

denying their unborn with a dial tone, the many attempts at redialing without success.

 

Suddenly, the world got colder as she made her way home,

contemplating flight, but having nowhere to go.

Sitting at the kitchen table in a nervousness, thinking her heartbeat was

audible, waiting to drop the news hammer on her mom.

Didn’t notice the light wasn’t on,

but didn’t matter because darkness consumed her from the moment she

acted too soon and disfigured her wrist from knife wounds.

 

Heard muffled screams to God, felt a million hands slapping her face,

and all she could say in her mind is “I don’t want to die this way.”

 

A warming sensation dulled her anxiety as she gave in to unconsciousness,

not aware of her mom compressing her pain,

the ambulance taking her away,

the hospital staff rushing her to surgery,

hoping she’d make it.

 

Just the peace of nothingness, only waking to a lady shining a light in her eyes,

and the only thing she could ask was,

“Is my baby alright?”

Marshall Jones is a 42 year old man on a lifelong journey of bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God. The author with Jessica Jones of THE PRODIGAL SON, Marshall's Biography includes his almost 21 years life sentence incarceration. THE PRODIGAL SON, just published January 2024, They married November 1, 2022. Marshall is also author of "A RAVEN'S MEAL" (RoseDog Books), a poetry collection, he aspires to target the grey areas and the people who are terribly misunderstood by society. Believing that everyone deserves a voice, he shares his testimony in his books and in their Red Granite Daily Devorionals (800 and counting). He also tries to use his gifting to share other people's experiences as well. Writing from the prison system that has now housed his body for almost 21 years, but also from the place that has been the catalyst to his freedom. As Jessica discovered in 2019, working as an employee in the Wisconsin correctional system, "Marshall lives more freely within the walls of that prison than any other person I’ve met in my life outside". Click on the YouTube Links below for these books and on the 'PUBLISHED WORKS' LINK FOR BOTH.