A Birth in the Commune
By Carson Wolfe
I’m carrying pails of water from the lake
to a firebath nestled between pine trees.
Inside, two lovers who travelled here
for the rural midwifery, a primal labour.
The father kisses the sweat on her neck,
coaches her breath, you are doing so well,
he tucks a loose strand of the moment
I'll never have behind her ear. My child’s
father blamed me for my due date sharing
the same day as the champions league final.
Ignoring my calls until I felt the amniotic
bulge at the gasp of my cervix. You sure?
he said, I ain't leaving this party for nothin.
Carson Wolfe (they/them) is a Mancunian poet and winner of New Writing North’s Debut Poetry Prize 2023. Their debut poetry pamphlet Boy(ish)Vest (2022) was praised by Dr. Kim Moore as an “unforgettable, wild, risk-taking roller-coaster of a book.” Their work has appeared in Rattle, Fourteen Poems, Button Poetry, and The Penn Review.