Birthday Morning by Sara Tusek

Frances, Jack, and baby Sara

I thank you, God, that I was born.

Although I don’t remember it,

I know that somewhere in my brain,

the memory of traveling

with push and moan accompaniment

must be engraved with fearsome awe.

To find myself in bright-lit space

when up till then, the wet, dark womb

was all I knew. How did I feel,

if feeling can be measured by

a being who till then had slept

suspended in a sea of gold?

And what of mother, father, brother?

How did they feel to see me squeezed

into their world? I do not know,

but nonetheless I did become

a person, living in their home.

For this, I thank you, God, my friend.

To be alive is mystery

that clothes our lives in fear and hope.

We do not know our origins,

nor when we will be called away

from living in this bright-lit space,

back to the darkness that we knew.

Sara Tusek

April 18, 2017