Labor

BY PAULA GOCKER

we wake to bending

toward ruby red bits 

of sun bursts

red for someone else’s

tongue   we do not

know what to say

our daughter in a room 

bees everywhere 

in her head and still 

we wake to bend

all of us mothers

the dark sky

and shadows slicing through

after Strawberry Pickers by Siri Beckman

Paula Gocker Originally from the shores of Lake Ontario, I have lived in California for decades where I've been a teacher, a poet, a reader, a hiker, a mother of daughters. I am amazed by the world --the unexpected griefs and joys, and I am grateful for writing and other arts as a way to make meaning, live with mystery.