from: Leaving the Door Open

31.

Wherever he looks, standing still in the city,

are people born of coupling, walking in grey suits

and ties, in long dresses and coiffed hair,

speaking elegantly of themselves and of each other,

forgetting for the moment their origin,

perhaps wishing not to know or to remember.

They dress as if having been born in a clothing store.

They were born of men and women naked

and gyrating from the hips

and with movements up and down

and with climactic yells,

as if losing their lives

in the pleasure and so glad,

so wildly glad.

From this rises the child

from between the wet crotch, blood and mucous.

He stands upright and pronounces himself

humankind and steps from bed and clothes himself

in a grey suit and from the next room of birth

steps a woman in a long dress. They meet

in the corridor and arm in arm walk its length

in search of one room, empty of inhabitants

but prepared for them.