Odisseus’ Mom

Egg and Sperm Meet

Egg welcomes desperate sperm.

I see both a child’s school diagram-

compass circle, mad tadpole

cheery-tailed, almost giggling-

and television picture, popular

science, camera fine as a butterfly

feeler; the sperm in nature’s

winning vest gets the big mama

egg, burying his head

as if in a single breast.

Spent. And I see cells,

dividing like bubbles,

one into two and so on,

until an eye, thigh; hand

holding. Gut-punching miracles.

But why is what escapes,

I hunt. Where is the spark-

Invisible, mysterious, God.

–Gillian K. Ferguson–