Secrets of Motherhood

dedicated to all the mothers of 1885

1.
When the cervix stops dilating
The heart begins.

You will be stretched thin.
You will always be enough:
you will never be enough.

You will carry this hole inside you
always.

2.
Umbilical cord: the mother's end
never goes away. When cut, it
recoils invisibly back inside.
Constricts the breathing,
other times the heart.
Warp and weft of intuition.

The baby's end dries up.
Falls off.

3.
Uterus: the size of a grapefruit.
What you know in your gut.
Source of life, the Great
Mystery:

to bleed, and bleed, days on end,
and yet
not die.

This is how you are a mother.
Look what you can bear, and
still stand upright.

4.
Learn when to bear down with pain.
Learn when to just breathe.

Know it will ebb, but
never cease. What you have
started has no end.

You cannot be
undelivered.