Danielle Le Chat (13 December 1986 / Cape Town, South Africa)

Defying definition,
Defying maternity,
- nature's most powerful instinct.

Too long sitting upon the egg,
Incubating the premature.
All that energy. Wasted.
And then,

Discard your litter, your offspring:
Crack the shell
Lick off the amnion
Protective coating
Expose your young
To predator and element and man alike.

But you, my biggest predator,
My hungriest opposition,
Never questioning motherhood,
But questioning me.

And now, tossed from the nest,
Tossed like litter,
Never a rite of passage,
But a discarding,
Abrupt and callous and cold.

I set up home in my heart for now,
While I unlearn the times you taught me to grow.