between fish and bird

by Alana Kelsall

we arrived as couples
at the rebirthing centre     mats lined up
like rafts     his arm around
my shoulder     I dropped
     to a crouch   
angled my huge belly into line
wondered who would succumb first
to the tug of sleep     draw up
     the flood of their birth?
our best friend trumpeted his snores
in no time     roped back sheepish
into the shadowy room
     whale music probing the walls
feeling like a cabbage adrift in a field  
I slipped towards a dark watery eye  
     was it a fish?  
 
how human is it to breathe?
the Denisovans once roamed across
vast mountain ranges     leaping
     from crag to outcrop
without losing their breath  
a gene they bequeathed to the Tibetans
where did they come from those climbers    
     how did they die out?
were they somewhere between a fish and a bird
able to lean into storms
     with breath and bone?
how did my body erase my
fearful mind during labour
with each surge
     to the end?
will our children’s children have to breathe
through water     learn how to float
     to higher ground?

Alana Kelsall is an award-winning writer of poetry and prose who lives on unceded Wurundjeri land. She recently won second prize in the June Shenfield Award, and was longlisted for the Liquid Amber Poetry Prize. Her poetry is forthcoming in the Australian Poetry Anthology.