Vortex

Having lost my uterus
I have gained the world
——or some such scriptural
comment gone awry —
Children leaping past my
window or tilting by on stilts
Birch leaves reddening to
brown,
And two nights with demons
muttering in the living room.
- part of me floating in bed
part adrift in the closet
or in some other vast darkness v trying to make you hear me so that I will know

I am
Both hot and cold until
time
I cradle in the middle of me
a world of exquisite perfection,
now,
so that in the hospital bed next to
mine
Peggy’s crushed knee
is part of the end of suffering.
And in the recovery room,
when the nurse holds and
soothes a small boy,
just waking from anesthesia,
I am comforted.