The alien

For months you were an alien inside me

unfurling and moving of your own accord

indifferent to the space you'd invaded

taking over as though it were 
your kidney to recline upon

your lungs to kick

your stomach to raid

expanding as though 
into the eternal

heedless of the limits of time...

or space 
-my space-

And you dwelt there

all at once 
mine

and not mine

in the sacred dark of my womb

Until the day arrived

-was it really so many years ago?-

that it was time to awaken unto the world

to find your humanness

You were wrinkled and pink

bent and battered

a Mr MaGoo face

angelic to a new mother's embattled gaze

At first it seemed you still belonged there

in the warm cocoon of my center

I held your smallness and recall

that strange oneness

Yet quickly you gain your foreignness

your otherness

You roll away from me

so that you can crawl off

and walk into the next room

and run outside

and peddle to your friend's home

where you will get in a car and drive off to meet your friends
and steal your first kiss in the backseat of your new car

then fly off to see the world

In a blink of an eye you are an alien outside of me

with a life that has little to do with me

Yet still you are the alien

whose nose I blew

whose vomit I washed off myself

that I held in the dark nights in the hospital

that I fretted over when the oxygen wouldn't flow

that I frowned at when your words were too cheeky

whose grades I fussed over each report card

that I yelled at when you sauntered in late

that I love