12/08/2024
"That Shower
The water tinges pink,
or pools bright red
as a stark reminder of all you have just achieved.
You ache and move tentatively,
for all your body has just been through.
So strong, but so fragile.
You body feels empty for the first time in the best part of a year,
But you heart feels more full than it’s ever been before.
You are alone in this room, silent but for the crashing of water ringing in your ears.
This white noise accompanying the melody of joy, shock, love, overwhelm singing through your body.
You mind whirs, your future flashing before your eyes, your immediate past replaying like a movie in your head.
Did that really just happen?
Did you really just do that?
Life has just changed forever in a moment.
You are a mother now.
You have a baby now.
Your baby.
Now.
The responsibility heavy,
the relief overwhelming,
the excitement buzzing,
the exhaustion crushing,
the love exploding.
As the warm water hits your face,
streams down your back
and washes down the drain,
the old you fades with it.
They say when you give birth,
a mother is born as well as a baby.
But I’m pretty sure that mother me
was born in that shower.
You’ve been to the moon,
and you’re coming back to yourself.
So still in your bathroom womb.
The world still buzzing behind the door.
You’ll step out of that shower, transformed.
You’ll never feel so full and so empty,
so much and so little,
so wild and so calm
as you do in that shower.
That shower you will never forget.
I think there are only 2 showers in my life that I vividly remember taking. The showers after the births of both my babes.
Those showers."
Words
Photo