Our Lady La Leche is considered the oldest of all Marian devotions,
and believed to help in conception and healthy deliveries.
I am tired of asking for so much—
for my fevers to break.
for my car to start.
for my sister to live.
For the infant to grow inside me.
I have done the right things:
said the novenas, kissed
the small statues.
I press my ear to your feet.
I am listening for something.
Like my own mother, bend
toward me, stroke my hair.
I slide the beads between my fingers.
The votives sputter in their red cups.
What else do you want me to say?
Amanda Auchter is the author of The Wishing Tomb, winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Poetry and the Perugia Press Book Award, and The Glass Crib, winner of the Zone 3 Press First Book Award for Poetry. Her writing appears in publications such as Alaska Quarterly Review, HuffPost, CNN, Black Warrior Review, Shenandoah, Tupelo Quarterly, The Massachusetts Review, and the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day project, among others. She holds holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Bennington College and is a contributing reviewer for Rhino. She lives in Houston, TX.