Prevernal Bearing

Sarah Yost

We met in the woods at the calm of the equinox

when the world hangs suspended at the height of breath

before its warm release. Two women wound paths

through cold light, each carrying her heavy expectations.

At the shadow’s edge we looked to the bare limbs,

raw & ready for life to push forth—

you were bartering with Eastre for your own child

& I worried I couldn’t bear the sacrifice for mine.

Then, settling into the trough of a sigh, where

stillness lingers before the breath’s return, here—

in that reticent, waiting space—we each conceived

our own ideas of motherhood & how we might be

different this time. Before their ribbons of DNA

ever unfurled, before they sprouted hair & limbs,

before those slick, downy heads broke the milkwhite

film, before they dreamed new worlds alive behind

blue translucent lids—the mothers loved you

so fiercely, they set to tear you from oblivion.

You were so wanted, woman alone molded you

from clay & the marrow of broken ribs—

Before your first thirsty gulps stirred the air,

before your lungs let down, we knew the still, silent

eye of your squall & begged the wind to let us

gather you up, draw you out, breathe you in.