Prevernal Bearing

Originally published in

Issue 18 of Cordella Magazine

Prevernal Bearing

we met in the woods at the calm of the equinox

when the world hangs suspended at the height of breath

before its warm release—two women winding paths 

through cold light, each carrying her heavy expectations


near the shadow’s edge, we looked to the bare limbs,

raw & ready for life to push forth—

she was bartering with Eastre for her own child

& I worried I couldn’t bear the sacrifice for mine.


then, settling into the trough of a sigh, where

stillness lingers before the breath’s return, here—

in that reticent, waiting space—we each conceived

our own ideas of motherhood & how we might be


different this time. before your ribbons of DNA 

ever unfurled, before you sprouted hair & limbs, 

before those slick, downy heads broke the milkwhite 

film, before you dreamed new worlds alive behind 


blue translucent lids—your mother loved you 

so fiercely, she set to tear you from oblivion. 

you were so wanted, woman alone molded you 

from clay & the marrow of broken ribs—


before your first thirsty gulps stirred the air,

before your lungs let down, she knew the still, silent 

eye of your squall & begged the wind to let her

gather you up, draw you out, breathe you in.

Sarah Yost

ⓒ Sarah Yost 2023