Sweet Breads
The big migraine pinned me
like the wind pins you down
in some strange hotel
or kids stop you going
anywhere
my young neighbour
between
cars trapped
gave birth at home
on Christmas Day
silent beyond
what I could imagine
from my memory
of an eleven pounder
and it got me thinking
of the other child
the boy
running then pinned
by
that birth
his sister
sliding into light
breathing up the spaces
he left vacant
arriving to be suddenly
incontravertable
in her claim upon the earth
the breast
the milk of what had
been just one moment
there before
his
his only - mother
in the driveway is his Dad
his friend- they swap out
the engine
from the scrap car to the
new car and I watch them
as they handle and degrease
admire the surety
the belief in
all that
provision
ahead
I see fear
can be erased with one big blow
huff and you puff
and you blow the house in
see
the strange logic of our bodies
the kiss of this imprisonment
inside us just as much as
on the drive
in the bed
made by having
it
beguiles as much as baffles
it’s the beauty
An important poem, Kerri.
ReplyDeleteI like this a lot. (an understatement btw:))
ReplyDelete