water birth

The latest ReadWritePoem promt is mothers, a poem about mothers. I wrote a poem about becoming a mother.

water birth

Battered by waves of contractions
like so much flotsam on the open sea
I drown,
surface,
drown,
surface,
my eyes on the horizon where you wait,
sending up flares to lead me to shore.
I stumble onto the sand,
my hair wrapped around my neck like seaweed,
licking salt from my lips and
gasping for breath.

And there you are,
sea-creature clumsy on this sudden land
and smelling of salt water and blood.
I watch you cling to me,
you shipwrecked survivor
with me your plank,
and I drown.

I drown,
I drown,
I drown.