I hang up the phone after hearing those words, “your mother is gone”

and I’m expelled naked and screaming

from the security of the only womb I’ve ever known.

The death of my mother triggers a new birth for me.

I’m tumbling, milky-eyed and bewildered

into the unknown.

My umbilical cord is severed and

I’m floating wounded in this uncharted abyss.

I am an orphan, untethered and unbound

yearning to be swaddled as I navigate this

new life alone.

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Copyright 2020, all rights reserved. All images taken by me unless otherwise stated.