Competition

Highly Commended

Umbilical Dialogue
by Sue & Cate Bailey

Mother
You grew under my heart -
Into my heart
Pulsating indecisive images of ultrasound;
The tugs began and then
The wrench of birth's separation.

The diaphanous membrane of vessels
Still aches and bleeds;
Through 21 years
Of genetic affinity, boundless belonging,
Unexplained synchronicity of heartbeat.
gravitational pull to my womb
Draws you from England -so far away
Our phone and email stutterings,
Inept vocalizations
Are leaving so much in the cosmos.
am always afraid
The words won't come -
One following another
To touch your heart.

Sometimes, the stressed syllables
Of distant conversations
Hang like dust particles
Waiting for your stem-cell memory
To bring them life.
You were never the simple addition -
Forever you have made me
So much more than one.

Daughter
i am crouched on the floor ,
huddled beside the radiator,
reading your letter.
some offhand thought
comes through your fingers,
into your scrawl.
between the lines
i feel a tug on my umbilical cord

but I am contained here;
dissecting the wires burrowing into the wall,
alone
with no way back to your womb,
rattling in this empty box;
so conscious of the space i cannot touch.
everything in here is grey
and doesn't remind me of you.
so I dream of your flushed and glowing warmth,
all the colours of your words
and the tethered distance of our worlds.

you know of my battle -
every time I leave out a part of my life;
the cord is stretched and pulled
and the longitude between us is tangible.
but then from your letter's lines
crawling along the page,
grasping and clawing their way;
it pulls us together
and the globe is condensed.
tonight I fight through mist's clutching fingers
and search for a phone box.
from that beacon of light

i cast out lines towards you.
you hang on the wire and grip the cord
between your teeth.
i am embraced by the gather of your voice;
as all the string is wound in
we are bound again