Forgotten Ground Regained
Continuous Gestation
Winking, wobbling, · a womb with eyes,fertile as catfish, · fleet and languid,her Weltanschauung · voluble, silent,arachnidlike, · her legsprawl flattened,she waits for her partner: · approach, embrace,a fecund exchange, · and she’s full again,always pregnant, · her inside bumpedby heads and elbows · till the hour arrives,months in the making, · of her motherhood.Delivery done, · no lag granted,in her round belly · brood stirs anew,her hands-off doctors · heard but not seen, her days a rush, · her regimen endless.
Copyright © Donald Mace Williams, 2009
Originally published in Measure, IV, 1, 2009
Reprinted in Forgotten Ground Regained: A Journal of Alliterative Verse, New Series, Issue 2, Spring, 2024
Answer: the space station