How a woman delivers hope
She embroiders the tundra with her hushed moans, breathless
As a tightness tugs and untugs within her, hesitating, punctuating
She watches the air meet flesh at the outline of her being
As calm unsettles into rivulets flowing from inside of her
She pushes into beginnings, and rises into endings—still patient
As the universe rises in thumri, swirling slogans into light
She follows other women, their flaming, screaming, breathing
As her urging sinew and muscle shift, pulsing her towards life
She renews herself with a sumptuous feast of goddess light
As it ebbs and flows, unfurling grit and grace, reciting the new
Reciting the new, reciting the new as the midwife guides
She oozes freedom into the space between her thighs, rising
Into a crescendo, the protests outside grow vacant with cries
She enunciates freedom for her body, and offers an exile to that
which was held within hers, pushing, brimming, pushing, bearing
delivering hope into a pregnant pause
And a glistening head now emerges—
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