Nothing exists but pain –
breath-sucking, inescapable
smother. I’m drowning

in a sea of it, my ears 
full of wordless 
tortured-animal wails

which emanate, somehow,
from my own lungs. 
My body is a melon

halved by a slow knife.
Orange flashes inside eyelids,
garbled voices, blood

spilled over white sheets.
Time is agony. Death
might be welcome until

the howls abruptly give way 
to kitten cries close by
from someone new – 

beautiful bruised plum 
of a creature drawn to light 
from the depths of my womb. 

I don’t know how love
instantly overtakes ache,
but I marvel at the eclipse.