Ultrasound shows them:

moth holes

in the vacuum of the ovum.

Medics refer to ‘strings of pearls’,

some of which teethe,

their tissue is that much an assortment of cells,

casting out hair and bone to become

small sacks of offerings stored

in the tract.

Even without the scan wand

painting this wall before children,

the cysts are clear now,

grounding me like pebbles.

But I can leave the hospital for home

where I don’t keep

plants in urns, their roots all stoppered

with gravel.

I’ll try to induce myself,

conducting the passage of a lunar month

through measures of darkness and light.

I’m waiting for my body to snow.