By Michelle Perrin-Crawford

There is a pause
no one prepares you for-
a suspended breath
between who you were
and who you are about to become.

The room hums,
voices blur into something distant.
A ring of fire and time slows
as if it, too, is waiting.

You gather yourself
for one final push-
but it feels like more than effort,
more than pain.

It is your soul,
loosening, stretching beyond you,
ready to exist,forever,
as a piece outside of your body.

And then-
a cry splits the air,
sharp, undeniable, familiar-
and everything rearranges.

You are two-
separate yet
forever tethered
by something deeper than blood.

They place this new life against your skin,
and you recognize them
in a way that makes no sense
and every sense at once.

This is a miracle-
not that they are here,
but you have become
someone entirely new.

In one breath.
In one moment.
In one final push-
you became a mother.