Gratitude (A word on my 24th year)

I am love We are love Love is every atom and every drop of water and every breath of air I love the world and this life so much I can’t breathe Liquid gratitude flows from the delta of my soul Opening, mouth of the river wide, Into the endless seas of life, creatures, energy, light, dark, land, ocean, air We are love. Thank you, mother And by that I mean Mother Earth, and mother of mine Whose image I grow into More clearly each day And by that I mean Eyes, lips and nose But more so heart, mind and spirit. The cord is cut from the belly But a stronger one grows from the soul The first cry from the still-blue baby Lungs burst open, and with them, Her eyes, beholding the first truth The great gift and the great trauma Of being a girl. Who would have thought That after years and years of scars Obtained at the hands of men My mother’s greatest gash, cutting like caution tape across her torso, Fenced off by rippled skin and scar tissue, Would be the wound of bringing another woman into this world? She let me tear her open, out of the womb and onto the Colosseum stage Knowing no sword could protect me Better than the sharpness of my own tongue. So perhaps I left the most gruesome mark on purpose And by that I mean To say, stay away, cold world She’s bled enough for the rest of her days. She is love Women are the backbone of love The skeleton of devotion The internal organs of strength And by that I mean, women and femmes of all identities, as birth, and birthing, do not a woman make. The divine feminine cannot be defined For isn’t that true of all things divine? The divine right of Kings, for example Owed us no explanation So, by such rule, nor do we owe you Think of that the next time you ask Can I get a smile baby? We are love Rows of gratitude Sown with seeds of joy, watered with life Each year a new harvest, compounding the feast There are few dry years On the farm in my heart.