The symbol

Of the world’s incompleteness
Her bleeding, the shedding of sin

The corridor to humanity’s survival
As vital as the sun itself to life

The life she gives by what is besought from her
The life she takes by what is laden in her

The constant exaggeration

When she coils herself in pain
And cries to the heavens

The tears nobody counts
The tears nobody hears

The silence of shame
A resonance of all that is obliterated

Then the rising

Chains unbound by her own mind
When she lifts her hands in surrender

The wrinkles of fortitude under her eyes
The soft skin on her belly

In it the memory of separation
A precarious chasm of possibility.