When I appeared suddenly out of my mother 

Not a moment too soon – breached    a nothing 

Thing sifted from the deep and floated above 

Delivered to the world    an offering in her blood – 

And ever since then, my mother has explained how 

To love is to hurt but pain dulls with a kiss  

As I have been trying so hard to emulate – 

Names blur like a sea-foam bruise and I wait 

For the lightning strike of loving and I wait 

For mother to tell me again of how much it hurt 

To cradle love in her arms  how you have to push 

Till you bleed and your veins swell and reach like seaweed 

And cling to the surface of your skin – I was borne 

By the cresting waves of her breasts  her belly    the salt- 

Sting of her sweat   trench-line down to her stretched-out-navel 

The cave of her womb floods to flush me out 

Naked and reaching for the passing moon  

I slipped out blue and varnished and she smiled –  

Gutted from top to tail open wholly to the pain  

And my first triumphant wail.