Transition

Although shortest in duration, transition is the most intense stage of labor occurring just before the second stage when the baby is pushed down the birth canal to be born.

This wait

Has far exceeded

Any normal gestation

By decades.

This labor

Has been protracted,

A rhythmic

Annual contraction

When imagination

Dilated

In attempt to grasp

What reality

May be.

I pace

My home,

My yard,

The driveway.

My husband

Has finished painting

A long ignored room,

Has cleaned,

Has sent away

Onlookers.

It won’t be long now,

Just an hour until

She calls from the hotel.

I breathe,

Hang sheets on the washline,

Paint my toes.

Nervous tension

Rises

As unseen forces

Propel me

Through time

Until

The car bearing

The woman

Who carried

But never held me

Pulls into the driveway

And she hears

My first cry.