water birth
May 13th, 2008
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.
5 Responses to “water birth”
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I like the ambiguous nature of the repetitions at the end. It could mean you are drowning in love. It could mean a part of you drowns because now you’ll have to take care of a child and put your own wants aside.
All the images are fresh!
this is beautiful! (and i love your blog design)
Simply marvellous!
child to love?
i love your imagery in this, and, the ambiguity at the end, regarding your ‘drowning’. are you happy? are you feeling overwhelmed? very nice, and of course, interesting as well!
Linda and Jan - I was worried about the last lines being ambiguous, as I read this a certain way, but it sounds like a little ambiguity is not necessarily a bad thing. Thanks.
Carolee - I can’t take credit for the blog design. It’s by Randa Clay; her link is at the bottom of my page. But it fits perfectly with my title, which I decided on before I found this design. Thanks for stopping by.
Gautami - I’ve been popping by your site on and off since the Poetry Thursday days. Thanks for stopping by.