after that, Mary sat
me down, took my hand,
and tried to make me understand
the sensation of gestation:
fast and slow…before you know
it’s over; yet a single day
can stretch patience
in a thousand painful ways.
she took my hand and caught my eye
with snatches of a lullaby
that her inner child composed
while sleeping into being.
before we rose
and returned
to cities where the forests burn
she taught me in every human tongue
to nod “let in me your word be done!”