To be a woman is to know
Where it is the shadows go
At the intrusion of the dawn
To know the nestled sweetness
Wreckless uncertainty
Of a child within the womb
To be both the carrier of life
And the tomb of those dead
Carried inside
A walking coffin
Of memories
To be kept alive
To be a woman is to know
To labor at deaths call
Birthing stillness
Bleeding out her sex
Primal being