By Hayley Zemontas
I’m a mum to 13-month-old twin girls and I will never forget the moment that I had an ultrasound scan at 8 weeks. I was convinced in my mind that all those pregnancy tests with their strong blue lines and the nausea I was already experiencing would all turn out to be a trick: that there would be no little bean blossoming inside of me. So imagine my absolute shock to be told that actually, there were 2!
I wrote this poem after meeting another lady at the hospital, a few months later, who had just come from her first scan and had the exact same expression of disbelief and joy battling for prime position on her face!
I overheard her telling her family on the phone, saying “oh god what are we going to do?!” and I couldn’t help but smile to myself. When she had finished her phone call, I caught her eye and said gently, hand on my vastly growing stomach, “don’t worry, I was shocked too but you get used to it”.
This is for all the fellow twin mothers out there who experienced the same shock and delight in equal measure at discovering they were carrying two bundles of joy! Twin parents, I salute you!
Two
In a stranger’s glazed stare, I saw my own.
An expression I’d worn just 6 months ago.
Recognised the shimmer of incredulous tears,
the racing thoughts that flicked through oncoming years.
Imaginary photos without the camera flash,
spilling past her eyes, as her world spun on its axis, have a dull crash.
I knew how it felt to seem suspended,
reality suddenly upended.
Both heavy with shock, yet feather light.
Coasting on the wings of a miracle, torn between fear and utter delight.
There’s time enough for worries, for now just soak it up.
A moment so many long for, it’s yours to feel, to touch.
To relive, retell and stick in the memory book,
so that you might recall even 10 years down the line
this spark of colour, forever frozen in time.
Like a pendant of amber encasing a fly.
Bask in the news; you’re chosen, you’re strong.
Strong enough to carry two instead of one.
A vessel of the most wondrous kind;
a parcel with the most precious of cargo inside.
It’s natural to feel trepidation and doubt,
to struggle to breathe as you process this clout.
But someday soon, you’ll laugh and shout
because you’re a twin mum and proud.
Be proud, be loud; bask in the glory.
This is the first page of the rest of your story.
On silken parchment, embossed in gold,
a recollection that will never grow old.
The day the world faltered, not once, but twice,
and handed you a gift for which there’s no price.
Hayley Zemontas is a first-time mum to twin girls. She loves writing poetry and finds it very therapeutic. You can find her on her Facebook page.
