This is a poem I wrote in 1977 when I was pregnant with my son, Tod.

Bittersweet.

You wanted me so very much
Like no one else before.
And though we made love tenderly,
When the last pulse of ecstasy
Washed through our limbs, I cried.
Bittersweet was that first night,
For all of the love I felt for you,
You merely lusted me.

So many nights you held me close
Yet never did you know,
Whom it was that you caressed,
Although you knew my body well, yet
I knew all of you.
I felt the taste of bittersweet,
For though I loved the whole of you,
You merely lusted me.

Bittersweet long summer nights
Alone, I think of you.
Sweet, salty tears escape my lids,
These hands my swollen body touch
And feel the child that we have made;
A child conceived in love and lust,
To be brought forth in innocence,
Whose birthright will be joy and pain,
A child whom I’ll name “Bittersweet”.