For Ben, Spellman, and Jamila

                                    10:17 a.m. July 21, 2022

This life, this moment.

I am sitting here in light and shadow,

Full of the green outside my glass door.

Somewhere a chainsaw,

Somewhere a weed whacker,

Everywhere birds and flowers

And green.

I weep with being alive

In this life, this moment,

So precious is this feeling

Of air and lightness

At 10:23 a.m. on July 21, 2022.

I breathe in and out,

And my heart beats

A red river of love.

One day, I will not be sitting

Here in this chair,

And you may wonder at

Life and death

And light and dark,

And the fact that I am your mother,

Gone and not gone from you.

For now, with the sincerity

Of flesh and blood and breath,

In this life, this moment,

Sitting here in light and shadow,

Full of the green outside my glass door,

My heart and womb

Are full of YOU.