Cradle of life

Where have you gone now that you left me and I finally let you go?

Did you quietly slip back into life without hearing me cry?

You left with no goodbyes, and now that I cannot return to you and you cannot come back to me - all seems gone, broken, and lost.

So where can I find you? You are not inside, nor outside – and though you made me mother, I feel more like your child now, searching everywhere.

Oh, I see, since the beginning of time, it was never I who held you, but you who carried me. And where is it you come from, anyways? Were you ever even mine to be lost?

It's true, the universe was born from within you. Then, you cannot have died. So it may just be that in my dreams tonight, I see you for what you truly are: cradle of life itself.

Wait, I feel you again. Are you closer than any embrace? For I hear you, too, but can't recognize you wrapped in golden light. Tell me, is it really you I see everywhere?

Your heartbeat is twice as strong. How could this be? Is it both mother and child pulsating within? Or is it that the whole world just turned into you, womb?

Now I understand: we have never been without each other. And though you served me for a while, and for this I thank you, I will endlessly serve this life because you made me who I am.

#poems to womb