
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.