grandmother weaves a story
\naround her mother’s birth<\/p>\n
ten score years ago grandmother weaves a story around her mother’s birth ten score years ago a little house a darkened room airless mud walls absorb and reflect the screams of a terrified young girl beads of sweat soaking the bedding leaving dark patches and finally the dai ma…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3670,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,1136,441,5],"tags":[5042,5043,4375,5044,4320,4876],"class_list":["post-109698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous","category-official-marathon-prompts","category-poetry-prompt-responses","category-poetry-prompts","tag-2022hourfour","tag-birthingpoem","tag-ermelindamakkimane","tag-hundredyearsago","tag-poetryprompts","tag-thepoetrymarathon2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3670"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109755,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109698\/revisions\/109755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\na little house
\na darkened room
\nairless
\nmud walls absorb
\nand reflect
\nthe screams
\nof a terrified young girl
\nbeads of sweat soaking
\nthe bedding leaving
\ndark patches
\nand finally the dai ma<\/em>
\narrives with her years
\nof experience
\nconfident hands
\ncoax the mother-to-be
\nto breathe and push
\nand push and breathe
\nand the slimy mother
\nof my grandmother
\nis born without
\na whimper in her
\nDai ma<\/em> whispers
\nin an ancient tongue
\nancient words of life
\nand holding the mother
\nof my grandmother
\nupside down
\ngives a gentle pat
\non her back
\nand whispers there too
\nthen she readies
\nthe mother
\nto nurse the baby
\nonce more she whispers
\nto the silent mother
\nof my grandmother
\nwhile the young mother
\nwatches uncomprehending
\none more back rub
\na blowing into the mouth
\nand the mother
\nof my grandmother
\ngasps, then mewls
\ndawn breaks
\nthe silence of the room<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"