My Wild and Precious life

Answering Mary Oliver

I will dance tenderly to the ecstatic energy of birth sounds,

a low moan will sink me down to the hips, I will hold and squeeze

a scared whimper will call my arms around, I will hold and whisper

I was born to bear witness to the wild and precious sermons

of the mother tongue

I was born to bare my heart and hands as something stirs inside of them

and wildly turns them into precious deities. 

I was born to bear witness to the wild and precious prayer

of mothers pushing. 

I was born to bare down with them as life pushes through them,

birthing wild things and precious love.

Who are you? I ask as she slips through- her first breath a prayer-

and what is it that you plan to do?

Who are you? I ask as he slips through- his first breath a prayer-

and what is it that you plan to do?

I will ask this question a thousand times this life time,

and watch little prayers unfold into this one life time;

Each of them, as wild and precious as the next, and the one before.