ஓம்

Sacrifice

had my father known

when he cast forth his offering

to the sea of my mother's womb

what creation their joy would bring

would he have welcomed the man-she child

___ its birth

heralding my duality as natures zenith

in human form

and blessed the son he held for all to see keeping my sister self obscured, until

understood my second destiny

or would he have shuddered

at the fate his loins possessed

and retracting from those clashing thighs,

let the seeds that bore such strains

meet their end upon the ground

12

Adrian Stanford