The first in-between phase
is the obvious one,
I was part girl
part woman
gangly
spotty
new soft
flesh.
The second
was the space between
woman
and mother,
I still wore my hair in a knot
like I did at university
at exam time
but I also had a new baby
and a purse,
bigger than I’d ever owned,
full of just in case
items like band-aids
aloe vera
a rubber ball.
I didn’t yet call anyone
pup
but I could suddenly
make an excellent soup
and I found the words
came easier
for what I believed in.
And then one day
my son said mama
for the first time
and the path behind me
fell away,
just like that,
the last bit of child
I was
no more.