Placenta
in the beginning spiral arteries unwound
a river thundered to the site
where the capsule was buried,
flesh into flesh, bathing the villi in blood:
our first exchange
within days a structure
sprang up along the outermost wall,
a trading post that would balloon
into a roaring bazaar
teeming with vessels from both sides
bearing bottled air, fresh supplies,
fecal waste, heady hormone clouds,
white flags of phosphocholine…
everything you need to build a world,
and all without a drop of blood
tumbling over the boundary
stand back
to marvel at the bright metropolis,
fairy tale of eternal growth,
where futures were traded
behind chemical shields
electricity! jazz! foreigners! excess!
arteries at capacity and everyone you met
only ever passing through
to fall in love in such a place,
blood deafening, fingers plunged
into the very same well of history,
never quite touching
nine months from cyst to city,
cradle of civilization making ready
to launch a human into space
that day the sea drained dry,
the sky collapsed in red clumps
but the tether held, quietly shipping
the last of the oxygen
then you peeled away from the uterine wall,
followed your charge into the cold,
slipped into the waiting bucket
and were gone
skin to skin by then we didn’t see you,
infinity in a pound of flesh
Erica Hesketh is a poet and musician based in London. Her poems have been published by the Mum Poem Press, Lunate and harana poetry. She is currently working on a poetry collection reflecting on the early years of motherhood. During the week she runs the Poetry Translation Centre, a charity dedicated to celebrating contemporary poetry from around the world in English translation.