Cycles

Photo by Dulcey Lima on Unsplash

On a day when my stomach is bloated, I am a touch nauseous, and my breasts are sore — on a day shortly before I start my (last? could this one be the last?) period, I can think of nothing but menopause and cycles and what rhythm awaits when the rhythm of the menstrual cycle is gone.

An aging woman wonders:

without the cycles of menstruation,

the ebb and flow of feeling at ease in this body,

How will I know where I am?

Silently, as her body settles into this month's waiting,

she reaches out for something

some rhythm that exists without.

Through her feet, bare on uneven floorboards,

she feels a pulse like blood, faint.

This.

As her body's rhythms fade, it grows stronger

until it rises and engulfs her,

fills her with the everything.