I am sick today, <br />sick in my body, <br />eyes wide open, silent, <br />I lie on the bed of childbirth. <br /> <br />Why do I, so used to the nearness of death, <br />to pain and blood and screaming, <br />now uncontrollably tremble with dread? <br /> <br />A nice young doctor tried to comfort me, <br />and talked about the joy of giving birth. <br />Since I know better than he about this matter, <br />what good purpose can his prattle serve? <br /> <br />Knowledge is not reality. <br />Experience belongs to the past. <br />Let those who lack immediacy be silent. <br />Let observers be content to observe. <br /> <br />I am all alone, <br />totally, utterly, entirely on my own, <br />gnawing my lips, holding my body rigid, <br />waiting on inexorable fate. <br /> <br />There is only one truth. <br />I shall give birth to a child, <br />truth driving outward from my inwardness. <br />Neither good nor bad; real, no sham about it. <br /> <br />With the first labor pains, <br />suddenly the sun goes pale. <br />The indifferent world goes strangely calm. <br />I am alone. <br />It is alone I am.<br /><br />Akiko Yosano<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/labor-pains-2/
