Watching this girl with half-grown fingers
Pushing fruit into an unbaked pie
And looking at me with a smile of pride
Sure she will find approval in my eye
I am seized in belly and in chest
At my center, lower, and above
By that which fabled mothers always have,
This fiery, flaming, fierce instinctive love.
I would lose anything in her protection:
Starve myself so she could eat
Take angry bears within my teeth 
Leap into traffic in the street
For her.

And I must wonder
	Because the world is not all innocence
If my own mother ever felt this, even once
Why she deserted my defense.