a thought i had
as you stretched out in the bath:
you, my water-bearer,
water-dweller,
you, who ripened inside me,
grape, plum, apple, pumpkin,
until the harvest time
(hand picks an apple, hand picks a plum,
dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum)
and you slid down, down, down
out of deep, unordered water
let there be you!
you, all of you, already:
lungs, spine, arteries, eggs…
eggs! yes,
silly, small things,
but there they were,
all there, they were,
in the beginning,
in you.
you already held them,
gently cradled,
but did not know it.
someday, you will know,
as i now know,
that i cradled them too,
in you
in me:
nesting dolls
of possibility
for a future—
untold generations.