It’s not the gentle flight of a stork
through the glimmering sunshine of new day.
It’s new life knit from blood and sinew in the darkness of a womb,
a potentially dangerous craft of rearranged organs
that can leave behind chimeric kisses.
Nutrients are borrowed (sometimes stolen)
to support the rapidly sprouting growth.
There’s fluttering of a nascent heartbeat,
And a tickle of intrauterine butterflies,
as it takes away your breath, displacing everything.
Then the new life is brought blinking into a brightly fluorescent world,
through the sacrificial effort of sweat and blood and tears,
ushered on and completed by a glowing rush of oxytocin.
Michelle Arnold is member of the The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, Class of 2022. She received her Bachelor’s degrees in Biochemistry and Spanish from Arizona State University in 2015 and a Master’s degree in Applied Ethics and the Professions (Biomedical and Health Ethics) also from Arizona State University in 2017. She has interests in medical humanities, patient-provider relationships, and improving healthcare for underserved communities.