First published in The Elpis Pages, A Collective, available for purchase here. Proceeds benefit Planned Parenthood.

my belly is a den

I feel my cub push down, down

towards the mouth of the cave and I whisper

not yet, not yet, little bear

the tummy is a fishbowl

I must guzzle enough water

to keep its insides sloshing with

amniotic fluid and baby limbs

my abdomen is a nest of braided twigs

gathered from the woods of my

mistakes and yet I build it

stronger still

the stomach is a web

where I’ve spun up my sack of

placenta and cord and body and I hope

that the wind won’t blow through its silks

my womb is a pit dug in the sand and like

the turtle’s flippers smoothing the grains,

I softly pat the outer skin of

my little one’s home