Agnodice

(For Leilani)

In the faces of my child

Crying laughing somnambulant words

I see the birth of ages spent in other worlds

Entwined with warmth

From fires and friends

Keeping cold air foreign

Ears pressed against doors

Straining

Listening

For pauses bringing blessing

Supplanting sterility for human passion

She ushers in life

Slapping breath into lungs

Nine months dormant

The first other

To touch to hold

To enfold and wrap in warm arms

I imagine tears mingling

Connecting rivers from ages in pagan past

To the child who is new this night

In this

She is not other

She is Mother