Carnations (Water): A Poem For Mother’s Day

I

Water seeps from between your fingernails
Gushes from between your legs
Drips from the corners of your eyes
When you open your mouth there is water
When you open your eyes you are water

Carnations bloom from your fingers
Lilacs sprout from your hair
Daisies adorn your ankles
Lilies bursts from your breasts
Crowning your hips, your thighs, your navel

Water the color of roses seeps from between your legs
Tasting of cherries
Smelling of chocolate
Water the color of lilies seeps from your nipples
Tasting of honey
Smelling of apricots

Man never left the garden of Eden
She has been with him
All along

II

To all the mothers who have forgotten:
You are life incarnate
You are flowers in motion
Your waters are the tides of civilization

To all the mothers who have forgotten:
The scale does not weigh the size of your body
It weighs the worlds you have birthed
Your breasts are heavy because they breathed life into humans
Your thighs are thick because you carried not one but two or three or many lives between them

To all the mothers who have forgotten:
The numbers curling around your waist are no greater than the secrets you have kept for your families
The shames you have endured for the crime of being a woman
The others you have comforted, carried, or shouldered in their moments of weakness

Remember:
You are gardens
You are flowers
You are the Tigris, the Nile, and the Euphrates
You are life.

 

Malgorzata Chodakowska, Primavera II