by Leanne O’Sullivan

The Universe said to me,

Old woman I have learned

a few good things,

that when one part dies

in me another comes

tearing through the darkness

like a star, sudden

and tender and painful

as hell.  Each time

I have sat at the centre

of the world to see it,

each time I have crawled

the dark of my own belly

to not see, the shape

of the great light coming

and the dying one,

washed in such kindness

rising steadily towards it