Belly Rolls

Middle is no longer my own—
still attached to me, allowing me
to connect limbs to limbs, yes, but
now inhabited by another. No longer

viable to bend in half, to pick up items
from the floor, put on shoes, pet my
dog, shave my legs, etcetera. There is
a bulbous skin-tight element and often, Read more »

Heart to Heart

In the soft blue hovering
haze of dawn you hold
my belly between your
hands and head, soft curls
and rough brush of unshaven
cheek, you whisper in a
voice that is between you
two only, soft and silly
and turning over rocks to
discover what lives beneath.
I laugh; baby learns your Read more »

Acupuncture after Pregnancy

I started seeing an acupuncturist for my shoulder. I don’t know what is wrong with it, but it hurts. I can imagine straining it while lifting a baby several times a day, carrying a baby on my back or simply nursing hunched over. While I thought I was getting treatments solely for my shoulder, I actually learned that I needed much more as a woman recovering from childbirth and pregnancy. Read more »

The Nursery

We bashed in walls when we moved here, tore
up floors, destroyed remnants of past owners to
make it our own. The remaining saltillo tiles pave

a walkway through living space and kitchen to
back rooms polished with white paint soon to be
marked by short sticky fingers. A room of her own, Read more »

First Mother’s Day

Nine Months

They were everywhere,
dancing with clowns,
dueling with foam swords,
bopping each other
on the head with red, Read more »

About the Heartbeat

lost in pounding of
mama’s belly pulse—
first echo of life,
thin vibrato, distant
giggles, tiny chimes,
bouncy balls between
two fused grins,
the wonder of a system
that keeps this sound
safe in unanimously
known and new-found
recesses of body doubling,
body unfurling and
taking what it needs,
filling up,
pumping fuel from
and bringing light to
secrets under skins—
speeding engine, fisted battery,
paper lantern.

by Johanna DeBiase

Ultrasound

You are curled up and potential
like a Firebelly Toad beneath
a root covered in moist morning
leaves, waiting to leap to life.

Made visible, you wave little
limbs as if a bright light disturbs
your new sleep. We are in well-lit
waiting rooms or sprawled on metal Read more »

Spring

More in bloom than
fruit blossoms and
willow buds, more
songs than robins
and magpies guarding
young nests, more
sweet scents than sage
on wind or earth
after rain. Invisible,
intangible, indistinct to
anyone but me, this
growing, when I laugh Read more »

Sometimes

Strength gives way to uncertainty, a faltering edge light
is meant to walk upon, no longer controlling but
now channeling a mass entity of tides and
probability where there is an open end
for all results to culminate through
and ceaseless worry to
either exasperate or
disintegrate.

-Johanna DeBiase

Volcano

I climbed a volcano today
to give you fire. Fearlessly
because the molten river crumbled
beside me, my rubber soles

immobile and melting over
hollow black rocks, my lungs burning
from the smoke pyre that billowed
out of the livid mountain core.

Over my shoulder, the sun set Read more »