Second Spring

by Guest Blogger Nina Willow

Ovum

Ovulation

Ovulatory

Anovulatory

Menarche

Menses

Menorrhea

Menopause

Baby ovaries in mother's wombs with a lifetime of ova

Wombs in wombs in wombs

Eggs with the potential

Desired or not

Capable or not

To create from themselves another being

Fruits of our labor

An evolutionary imperative to receive hold carry produce Month after month after month after month

Pudendum, from the Latin pudere, to be ashamed

Culture imposes meaning on our bodies

meaning which inserts itself into our psyches

To hold

To produce

To empty oneself

Vomit

Shit

Piss

Birth

How many people have I carried:

My mother

Her mother

My father

My brother

My lovers

Their mothers

My mother my mother my mother

My children (but they were explicitly invited)

My womb has been inhabited since the day I was born

Probably even before that

All of those people I carried subsisted on my blood and my nutrients Blood and nutrients

Ovum

Ova

I'm glad they're gone

I decline to carry anyone else's life in my body from here on out

I retire from your cycle of life

This is my second spring and this time I am only birthing myself