Labor Pains, Growing Pains

Labor Pains, Growing Pains

He had asked his mother when he would grow great with baby
Like his enormous, jolly aunt had said about his cousin
Said it with a knish plopped into his plate
"She'll grow great with baby, she will"
And he stared
Awe struck and intensified
At the promise of life giver life grower life knower

His mother had laughed and said
"About the same time you get your beard"
And he would lay on the livingroom sofa, lay across the Cadillac seats, lay across his bed at night
And practice his breathing

"This is how I'll breathe when baby comes"
And he puffed his stomach and made a steeple
Closed the doors
Found all the people

Occasionally, his hands would drift to his face to feel for the beard
But they always returned to his belly
Which he imagined to lay crouched, prepared to bloom like a watermelon
From red blossoms and broke the neck of the flower with each birth

And he imagined the intensity of the life inside him
The feeling of his body turning inside out with life
Being inundated with the buzzing, trembling sense of purpose
And for but a moment he felt labor pains
But they came from longing, and they came from the heart