Saturday, March 16, 2013

Emerging Light

artwork: remedios varo


Emerging Light
by Estella Lauter

              after a painting by Remedios Varo,
            “luz emergente”, 1962

There is another woman
            lovely in her bones
                        delicate, determined

Face feet and hand
            emerge from a
                        fissure in burlap

Her body waits
            for the vaginal tear
                        of natural birth

Her right hand holds the lamp
            so full of precious fluid
                        it overflows to christen
    
the unknowing one
            who peers in awe
                        from his dark place beneath the floor

The wall will mend when she comes
            when her being quickens
                        when her pallid face

is joined by the body
            the bones we only imagine
                        to carry the lamp calmly

gently into our jagged lives.


~ previously published, in slightly different form, in
Pressing a Life Together by Hand  (Finishing Line Press)