Cervical dilation is checked by hand.

A foreign body, in a synthetic glove, touches flesh.

Blood that carries life mingles with synthetic oxytocin.

We are left to wait.

An hour, or two.

A day, perhaps two.

It is subjective.

Pain is the present moment.

In response, an opioid painkiller arrives.

Rest. A moment. The beginning.

In the slow repetition, the sense of time fades.

There is no room for control and feelings.

This is our moment.

The heart cannot calm down, and tears flood the eyes.

The subconscious begins to understand that there is no way to protect.

We are left to learn survival.

Confusion, helplessness, stress, neurosis, cancer, obesity, diabetes, mental illness.

It triggers fear and transforms into fear.

Existing simultaneously, shifting its focus, it makes itself known.

People feel they know us. They permit themselves to speak about us. They repeat that we are alike, that you are all of me.