My belly is as round as the green hill

My belly is as round as the green hill

That they say the devil made with his hands

Scooping out a ditch, down which rolled the water

Now the wide and silver Severn.

My baby will not come.

I have tried sex. I have tried pineapple.

Nothing scratches at the womb enough

To make it want to break it’s dam.

I am the dam, the original mother,

Dragging my weight up this green hill.

They say a walk will bring it on.

Two weeks overdue. I am so bored.

The baby is huge. Its feet are curled under my ribs now.

The slope curls up before me like a wave.

Like a curling green bore churned out of the Severn tide.

One foot in front of another foot, and the sun

Beats down upon me. Waiting for my son to be born.

Come on, lazy boy. I want you to breathe the air.

Come out of the soup and the warm waters.

Here is the river wind, and the green grass.

Here you will put down your feet for the first time.

You’ll climb the dirt bank with your sister,

Screaming with delight.

You’ll pick white ink-caps with your father,

And chase the white dog as the smells of badger and rabbit

Driver her wild. There will be bluebells here soon,

And the wooden cross will be carried here,

On the shoulders of men, women and other children.

They will be your friends.

And the singing will drift across the sky.

And you will be singing too. Your song will be never ending.

So come on. Be born.

There is no devil now to scoop the earth

And defile it. There is no god to be defiled.

God lives in the hearts and deeds of men.

The devil cannot reach there.

I am at the top. My daughter cannot wait.

She wings away down the slope on the other side.

She is flying, and the wild birds gather round her.

The animals are her delight.

The grass receives me. A blade in my hand.

Watch the river, and the forests beyond.

If I travelled away from here, I could get back to the sea.

But there is no need.

At last, the sea is rising to meet me.

A familar wave of pain.

It has begun.

© Doina Cornell 2024

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