Arden Levine

BEARING

She had a dream: the baby was coming
much too soon. On hands and knees
thinking nothing

would survive this, she also thought: if this
were the last moment, how could she
part from her life and leave behind

her books? Her waking self thinks: Strange
to be less concerned with dying and never
meeting her child. She pulls a book off the shelf,

reads aloud the words “water”, “fear”, and “almost”
when they appear, words agitating
for attention, wailing and terrified, God help me.