Now That I Am Forever with Child

(Mother and Sleepy Child by Kitagawa
Utamaro, 1753?-1806, one of the greatest
of Japanese woodblock printmakers; his
work had a profound influence on the
Impressionist painters of the nineteenth
century)

The intimate connection that a mother makes with her child in the womb doesn’t end at birth.

NOW THAT I AM FOREVER WITH CHILD

How the days went
While you were blooming within me
I remember each upon each —
The swelling changed planes of my body —
And how you first fluttered, then jumped
And I thought it was my heart.

How the days wound down
And the turning of winter
I recall, with you growing heavy
Against the wind. I thought
Now her hands
Are formed, and her hair
Has started to curl
Now her teeth are done
Now she sneezes.
Then the seed opened
I bore you one morning just before spring —
My head rang like a fiery piston
My legs were towers between which
A new world was passing.

Since then
I can only distinguish
One thread within running hours
You . . . flowing through selves
Toward you.

~ Audre Lord (1934-1992), American poet