Agua Dulce
by Elizabeth O'Neill

    Dehydration inhibits healing.
    Thirst the mechanism
    On which life depends.
    Glandular secretions,
    Amino acid chains --

    Broken.
    The cure is water.
    Ice, steam
    Flow, conception.
    Blood muscle skin organs

    The fetus swims
    In amniotic fluid.
    Water breaks.
    Lunar shards,
    thin moments
    in plain, sheer water.

    I am willing
    to become water
    Infused with God's light.
    Breathe water memories
    Of water times long past.

    I labor in water
    Tinged with blood.
    Birth slime, mucus.
    Ocean lake puddle pond
    Luminous with creation.

    Baptism.
    Return to the place
    Of seeds in water.
    Sacred flow.
    This is what I gift you.






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