Birth

Spawned from ancient delirium,
insensate aeons ago.
Sleepwalking,
but unable to define a dream,
this silent pilgrim
evolves heedlessly
in starless amniotic
hypnosis.
His time has no punctuation.

Then

Broken waters drain
sudden
down a sinkhole,
flushed,
swallowed whole,
manhandled
by a giant rubber vice
that will not take no for an answer.
Rudely
squeezed to death,
squeezed to life, then
spat from a water chute,
expelled without ceremony,
apparelled in filth,
and left out in the cold.

Caught in daytime’s searchlight,
eyes refuse to bear the insult of light.
Pugilist fists
make shadowplay
gestures in vacancy.
Lungs overrun,
have no say in it,
function the only option;
howling into life.
Protest,
his first statement.