National Poetry Month : Courtney Bates-Hardy,

 

Breath of Life

 

For every hug I could not ask for from my mother,
          my lover embraces me over and over,

moored in dreams, she reaches for me
          and holds me like the sea,

the dark enveloping our bodies
          rocking together in the dark,

I am enwombed, I am born again,
          slick liquid between her thighs

as I land gasping on her chest,
          reaching for air, open-mouthed,

our faces fit together like two halves of a coin,
          her nose to one side of my own,

the brush of her lashes on my cheek,
          the lick of her salt on my tongue,

her warm breath in my mouth
          as she breathes me into life.

 

 

 

 

Courtney Bates-Hardy is the author of Anatomical Venus (Radiant Press, 2024), House of Mystery (2016), and a chapbook, Sea Foam (JackPine Press, 2013). Anatomical Venus is shortlisted for two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Bates-Hardy’s poems have been featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2021 and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is queer and disabled, and one-quarter of a writing group called The Pain Poets.