Post-Partum
Amniotics spilt, and semiotics rupture;
there are no words, just raw screams and suckles.
Child of God, child of man – no difference:
new life is unmoored emotion,
a wide sea of tears and sick,
and just one desire:
to feed, gather in, be mother-close.
But God won’t stay.
Controlled crying;
separation an immediate fact post-partum:
we must learn to settle ourselves,
become content with occasional communion.
These all foretastes of a future rupture:
a larger curtain rent, another cry of pain
thrown down into Mother’s hands,
three days to cry,
unknown seconds
before we may leave them.
© KB 2007