Not Language:

That which comes before

mama

as the ink of the eye.

A rustle in the lining

the fluid disrupts, amniotic

            the womb 
                        & mouth 

it cherishes.

            Now, lapushka

—your cellular prison

                        is motherly fear & hope.

The baby becomes 

viable,             24 weeks,

& slips             past the need for developed organs,

a continued cocoon,

a survival
                 wide as the palm of your hand.

 

The wound of arrival

is just enough

 

to signal desire, 

live—

            away from sustenance,

 

                                    the first sound through which you enter 

your own lungs 

---

Minadora Macheret is a Ph.D. student in Poetry and Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas. She is a Poetry Editor for Devilfish Review. Her work has appeared in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Rogue Agent, Connotation Press, and elsewhere. She is the author of the chapbook, Love Me, Anyway (Porkbelly Press, 2018). She likes to travel across the country with her beagle, Aki.