E is for embryo

 I am doing this one early as I'm leaving for work early tomorrow.

(an organism in the earlier stages of its development,
as an animal still in its mother's body)

Whenever she hurts herself
no matter where she hurts
I get spikes of pain in my
stomach and legs. She is
eighteen now, no longer
the passenger of my bole
my trunk and I, the inmate
of your soul, a hunk, a solid
rock you hurtle slowly in ...

She fainted, for me, the day
she first inserted earrings
after piercing. I could not
hold her, could only cry
thinly: my daughter! darling!
I am plump fruit
fold-out princess
a wondering ...

Our adulthood together fragile
not yet mature on either side
slowly we accumulate
differences, the pain acute
less frequent, more disturbing.

* lines in italics are quotes from a poem in
my collection the very new self