Poem for a Daughter

"I think I`m going to have it,"
I said jokingly between the pains.
The midwife rolled competent
sleeves over corpulent milky arms.
"Dear, you never have it,
we deliver it."
A judgement years proved so true.
Certainly I`ve never had you

as you still have me,..
Why does a mother need a daughter?
Heart`s needle, hostage to fortune,
freedom`s end. Yet nothing`s more perfect
than that bleating, razor sharped cry
that delivers a mother to her baby.
The bloodcord snaps that held
their sphere together. The child,
tiny and alone, creates the mother.

A woman`s life is her own
until it is taken away
by the first particular cry.
Then she is not alone
but part of the premises
of everything there is:
a time, a tribe, a war.
When we belong to the world
we become what we are.