A poem from the collection ‘To Woman’, artwork by Jonathan Coudrille.
At the dawn of the cosmos chemicals
Precipitated – and all that was to
Be me was there. Hydrogen radicals,
Solidifying gases and a few
Trace metals bringing on the dawn of the
Earth and the colours of the rainbow which
My two brown eyes were created to see
And the wind with her harmonious pitch
Which my two ears were created to hear.
At the dawn of everything living, part
Of me knew, and everything is so near
Me now because I was there, at the start.
At every dawn to come, there I will be;
Only, for this while, is the dawn in me.