What Child Is This by Audrey Menck

There is an outcry in my bones
I press my hands and toes against
My mother’s womb
Leaping

My home reverberates with ferocity
Urgency
Peace.
My mother laughs

Lilting, melting, soaring
Her cry resounds
Incandescent.

My watery home trembles
With gladness, hope, the fulfillment of a
Promise
What child is this

Two voices, now
Harmony
The second somehow sweeter
Than my own mother’s—divine.

The pressure of a woman’s hand
Pressing in with confidence, assurance, gentleness

I squirm with delight.
What child is this

I curl myself into the warmth
I am not suffocated—set free.
Not enclosed—
enveloped.

Audrey Menck is a writing student and occasional photographer living in the Midwest where she studies English at Franciscan University. She spends her days reading good books, sipping strong cups of tea, and pursuing a life after the abundance of God’s heart.