Giving Birth

Giving birth is a battle. Sometimes there’s a cry and a sigh. The result of the birth being a tie in which mother and child win life. Other times there’s a cry and silence, the child killing the mother and taking her soul as a trophy. Or there’s a sigh and silence, the mother killing the child, but preserving her own life. And finally, there’s total silence, the result of the birth being a tie in which mother and child kill one another in the fury of the battle.

From Paulina Chiziane’s “O Alegre Canto da Perdiz” (The Happy Song of the Partridge)