THE BEARER:

She´s life´s carrier, she´s the bearer, of weighty matters all,

Bearing, in womb, in arms, on back, on head, not letting fall,

Babe, water, grain, wood, awkward branches, & heavy stone,

Giving life, nurturing, sowing, reaping & building sweet home.

Her only dropping & shedding, each month with full red moon,

In silence, humming deep in her soul, the ancient wafting tune,

Bending, stretching & continually lifting, all that´s in her wake,

 Building, ploughing & gathering, to feed & thirst’s pain to slake.

In all five continents, in countries so wide & very far away flung,

Plodding tired feet, leave prints in red dust, thorn & animal dung,

With kicking in belly, sun on her head & sloshing in rusty tin pail,

Swaying through deserts & forests, with tides to primeval old wail.

Carrying, from the dawn of earth´s birth till the dusk of our times,

Bearing, from the stoned groveling of apes till man´s zodiac signs,

Woman, this carrier, this bearer, of this whole world & her pain,

“Survival”, she says, but wonders, would she do it all over again?