Birth Equinox
1 Minute Read Time
Assistant Editor Prince Bush: In “Birth Equinox,” each stanza grows more syntactically silent: there’s a complete sentence, then a fragment (no main subject and verb), and finally only phrases, sets of dualities that increase in complexity and suggestion—opposites connected by “Half” repeating eight times, an enchanting amplification. The caesuras and terminal punctuation in each line of the final stanza evoke careful and slow meditation on one of the most precious of subjects.
Listen to Michael Eyre read “Birth Equinox”:
Birth Equinox
My granddaughter is
nine months old today.
In the world
for as long as she was
in the womb.
Half forming, half formed.
Half in, half out.
Half hidden, half seen.
Half dark, half light.
