Hope Like Sunlight

Sunlight rushes in a brand new day, heart lifting

with hope in the knowledge of a day

without appointments, a day to play and create, a day

with no expectations, no decisions, a day to just be.

Slip into the slowness of the hour, sip a coffee and leave the phone

tucked away. Let a breath out and listen, listen to the stillness

of the morning, watch the way the breath

rises and falls, expands and contracts.

My child beside me, wrapped in blankets, still asleep, face pressed

against the pillow, a soft whirring of their breath reaching me.

I light a small lamp and dress quietly, wanting 

to let them rest.

Outside, the day brightens with a promise that meets

my fledgling heart: today will be easier, today will be ours

to make and hold light in.

I stretch my fingers towards the sky, bending left, then right—

fingers open to the window, open to the light.

Behind me my child shifts, blankets rustling.

I turn to see them rising, eyes meeting mine

with the sun, morning written on their face

like the sunlight, bright, shining— hopeful. 

Eyes holding hope

like sunlight, face shining brilliant

as stars. They greet the morning softly, their voice keeping mine

in tenderness, their heart holding mine 

steadily beside them: rising, rising.

Stacie Eirich is a mother of two and author. Her book, Hope Like Sunlight (Bell Asteri Publishing, 2024), is an illustrated memoir in poetry, prose and art of her family’s journey to a cure for their child from brain cancer. All proceeds from the book benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital & Ronald McDonald House. Her poems have recently been published in The Amazine, The Bluebird Word and Synkroniciti Magazine. She lives in Texas with her family. www.stacieeirich.com