camped on the frontier of my life, pregnant with the future I am comforted by you star fixed in my sky think of your courage a knife being born in your belly you fear a painful birth   for the world does not yet contain the contours of our sharp new selves we had known this behind our minds for years when over coffee one quiet dawn we discussed the journeys that we must make each to create a world that can receive us thru new birth canals that will not strangle the erupting self, nor rupture the body in birth   I have come past outposts warning not to forsake a history written in advance – into light that scrapes my eyes clear of learned cataracts seeking fresh eyes that can see new bone forming in flesh but never suspending my gravity for another’s, for tho clumsy with my weight, I must trust it always watching for those who thrust into the light at the same deep angle   their refractions echoing in the well of the future forming constellations to chart our depth by   Cynthia Cook, New York City (published in WOMANSPIRIT March 1980) Shared by Glenys Livingstone, Ph.D.