Mothering was born
in the salty womb that shaped us
when the first wave met land,
crashing from the past into the future—

and a membrane grew a heart and two swallowing eyes,
and vessels carried first blood,
and our hands tended, touched, cradled, and rocked,
just as we were rocked in that ancient water—

so that those who come from us, all surprised,
can circle, sigh, cry, and create more of us,
the most natural motion in the world:
to reach beyond ourselves, and protect that reaching out.

We mothers are the first circle
within the circle of the earth,
within the solar system, within the Milky Way,
within the universe—

which is a long and round and endless road.