from Scenes from the Seconds 

It was written

for an exhibition

that at

the end of her life

Louise Bourgeois circled back

to her birth¹

When I did as asked

like long hair

I pulled my fire back

¹Unknown

***

Henceforth and forever I am my own

mother²

          crouched in dirt

          squinting at the root

Oh but now

          it’s just my look

                          loosened

to dive and surface

                  as if to risk worth

          beyond birth

after which

the introductions are endless

²Roland Barthes, “Mourning Diary”