Prodromal

 Prodromal

It's not that we want things to get worse.

It's that we want them to get better.

We'll put up with all the earthquakes, plagues, and wars thrown at us if it means

No more heart attacks

No more chemo treatments

No more hungry kids.

So we see the signs

We sense the thief in the night

And we start timing contractions.

They are regular, they are overlapping,

And then they stop.

They are regular, they spread from the abdomen into the back,

And then they stop.

False alarm.

The due date is past.

There have been enough world wars, enough fires,

Even enough locusts.

But those don't mean we've reached the end.

Not all pain is active labor.

And, when it finally comes, however slowly it might be,

It won't be what we expect.

A birth plan is not a birth prophecy.

Still, we can reassure ourselves of this--

No woman has been pregnant forever.