3. we carry us

she carried an ocean of becoming
the cocooning womb waters of her first born
across an ocean of grief

like a still small breath pulled from the fields of her dead

the tearing ripple of losses stretching clear across her heart 
as it gathered blood offerings to kindle a new heart beat inside her

the sting of disappearance crowding her eyes
as she watched her belly bloom

her home, her town, her family, her every spark of familiar,
nearly every living smile that ever nourished her 
now nested in the receiving arms of the soil

and left her behind 
a patch of scorched earth shaking with the effort of sheltering her seed

she carried an ocean across the Atlantic Ocean. 
from zelsheim to Ellis island 
the curl and unfurl of her baby 
forming his eyes and organs and tissues rocked in the swell and crash of the sea.