Dialogue Between A Fetus And Its Mother Poem by Darlene Hoskin

FETUS
O who shall from this warm cave, free
A soul enslav'ed such as me?
Within, no breath: like Homer blind.
Constrained, confined, with virgin mind.
A soul suspended, as if in chains
Of nerves and arteries and viens.
A strange unknown, that other part;
I feel her breath and touch her heart.
Is there still more that shines without,
Or is this womb what Life's about?

MOTHER

O who shall me deliver whole
From bonds of you, my dearest soul?
You, stretching upright, impale me so,
Here, with an elbow, there, a toe
Clumsy, swollen, my time is spent,
My flesh and blood, your pitch'ed tent.
God's design sketched within my frame.
(Eve and Mary felt much the same.)
We share body, blood, dear stranger guest,
A living Communinon which God has blest.

Peggy Pribyl