A Little Land.

Greenberg, Arielle

    1. lately the rural has been responding to a call put out by my
        husband
           "I'd like a little land" he says "not
that I'd know what to
                do with it"
   2. last night the midwives were at a birth
        Baptists
   I got the call at the office while on the other line talking about
        strawberry picking
   he said "who's this?" and I said "who's
this?"
   and he said "are the midwives there?" and I said "no
but I'm on
        the other line with one of them
   is there a message?"
   and he said
   "um the message is the contractions are four minutes apart and
        steady"
   then the flurry of love and rush of a birth
   at the birth the mom started singing hymns at 9.5 cm
   lay my burden down lord
   and the midwife sang harmony
   3. my husband talked about the house that called to him at
        men's group tonight
          just him and Chris and John
   (they meet at the midwives' office)
          he rode his bike there in the dark
   here is what the house has:
   a soapstone sink
   an old cook stove
   a greenhouse
   a guest cabin
   exposed beams
   2 acres
   167 acres of preserved land
          it's in an eco homeowner's association
   6. funny thing to "teach childbirth" (which I teach):
          the body knows what it knows
   the mind a black fog a comic strip speech bubble
          gets in the way of the divine pictorial
   so I traded
          "sit on the blow-up ball" &
                  "crayon-draw the labor you want"
   for spinach, chard, a beautiful
   head of bouncing lettuce with tiny slugs
          & two dozen pale blue & brown eggs
   three of them partially cracked
          from the "expecting" couple who farm on Faerie
Kingdom Road