Between Bruises and Blooms

I had imagined
this moment
a thousand different ways.

Most of them
ended with hospital rooms
and empty car seats.

Instead,

there they were.

Two impossibly tiny girls
sleeping beside one another
all the way home.

I kept looking back,
just to make sure
they were real.

Every stop sign,
every turn,
every mile,

felt like someone
was handing me
a future
I’d been too afraid
to imagine.

Home
had never felt
so full.