Sophia

Pamela Hockert, University of California Irvine School of Medicine

May 2004

Walking in newness,
I thought I was alone
In a vacuum of silence,
Each sound dying before blooming
Nothing could reach me
Except the wind, like hooded death
Meeting me wherever I ran

November 2005

My breath breathing lungs breathless,
I opened up my chest, like a bowl
I traded parietal pleura, ripened from within,
To drink in the sky
Under this light, my shadow diminishes
Memory hangs like a final tear
Clinging to the angle of my jaw

January 2006

Walking towards my womb, no longer walking
This ligament, no more my mesometrium

I have solved this labyrinth of vessels,
I have excavated tissue landmarks
My place is placeless
Still my steps trace the traceless

March 2006

Language was a footpath
Leading me back home
Its echo the evidence
Of distance from the source
My legs stripped bare
Brittle bones pluck silent notes
I am the soundless melody
My quiet mind
Unmoving lips
A sure sign of homecoming

May 2006

I have no stock in words, ideas or fantasy
Nothing to communicate or understand
The world is full and was so all along
My silent soul is free to fall
Into the speechless moon