Homecoming

Floating in perfect blackness in

Biological flotation tank

You start to squirm

Submerged in human craft.

Vitals connected.

Strange parasite

Half-formed.

Me and not me together;

In utero home

Slit-eyed alien in

Embryonic quarters

Curled up and bent

Contorted

Head down.

Legs strengthen;

Try to stretch

And slowly, slowly

Eyelashes break like tiny claws through thin epidermis

And little knuckles crack into being

Time to leave home

With a push push push

And screech with inevitable tear

And here you are.

The world too bright and loud

You bawl and struggle and mourn

Then soften

Sweet and salted

Stench of cunt and life

Like crack when I kiss

Your strange little head

Sustenance, poison

Collection of cells yet

Somehow still

The sweet yellow-haired boy

I see today

With those large, fearful, curious

Blue eyes