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Pregnancy and Childbirth
Selected Poems
All month I thought of your body, / soft with its delicious baby flesh / and fragile with its hidden bulbs and bones, // and knew you would be torn. / I pulled your small shoulders / closer as the days passed, / and some nights felt the tumor / rise beneath my palm like a burl / in a redwood forest, / worrywart, skullcap / under the duff of your skin.
—from “The Operation”
June 1988Celebrations
An old man and a butterfly, a beloved friend’s housewarming, a hysterectomy
January 1988Selfishness
Popcorn strategy, domestic violence, the importance of being cute
November 1987Being Peace
Life is filled with suffering, but it is also filled with many wonders like the blue sky, the sunshine, the eyes of a baby. To suffer is not enough. We also need to be in touch with the wonders of life. They are within us and all around us, everywhere, any time. Does it require a special effort to enjoy the blue sky? Do we have to practice to be able to enjoy it? No, we just enjoy it. We don’t need to travel to China in order to enjoy the sky.
November 1986Other Animals
Amniocentesis, the royal chamber, the head of Horace Greeley
January 1986The Green Woman
A hush fell between us now that almost had a thickness to it. It was like the moment when you drop a stone down a well and wait for the sound of its striking.
December 1983The Pregnancy Scare
She missed her period, her breasts grew tender / and for a week she was a guest in her own womb. / Alone, she felt a presence around her / inside, a larval dream.
July 1983Selected Stories
She grew up and retreated into a tower, where she lived for 20 years. No one understood this. Her friends thought perhaps she’d gone mad. When she emerged, she could fly. Everyone was very impressed, watching her fly over the sea.
April 1983
