Advent Poem
Sugar and Iron
by Vesper Stamper, 2007
A slender-hipped girl clutches her man-midwife
and all of created gravity pulls her knees to earth’s core
Dust, dander rush up glittering in an oil lamp’s light
as between two cosms she becomes the door
Heavy, oaken, down goes the flesh
fairy and sprite take the head by the hair.
Panting, and animal-lowing of fear and future
tidal waves crash and foam hard on the straw
The delicious, impossible grinning grip of nature
Infinite, alert delirium of the final throes
Throw the robe o’er the rafter, she says
Heavy, oaken, down goes the flesh.
The feral smell of sugar and iron
of mineral atoms, of mares and foals
wonder and straw, sugar and iron
virgin and lover, blood and bread
See her, the bride, the hard-won woman
Throw the robe o’er the rafter, she says.
“Let there be light,”and the flicker of the lamp wick
is the first light, first colors for the first-less one
Wide-eyed, the moment between cord pulse and lung-breath
The Mouth of Fiat rooting for the breast
Here is the wheel of fire, steaming cold
He sees her, the bride, the hard-won woman.
A blue-brown baby, covered in wax
crowned with stars and heat and invisible flame
swaddled with muscle, oxygen, skin
a burning mountain that can be touched
Surely there’s divine spark in each child
Here is the wheel of fire, steaming cold.