Venus-mamma

I immediately thought of the Venus-mamma with a huge hole in her belly, because only we mums understand that the relationship with a child is like that, it’s visceral.
Only we mums feel and remember for our whole life that twitch in the stomach when our children start to grow and move in us, during pregnancy.
It’s for that reason that my Venus, here, has a huge whole: it’s a sensation that becomes increasingly tangible, it’s a blow from life dealt right there where everything started, it’s fate’s mocking version of cutting the umbilical cord, a cut so different from that in the delivery room or the natural separation that happens when a child grows up.
Here, then, is my Venus growing really long arms, with huge hands always ready to do, do, do! Enormous arms and hands to work, to take care of, to guide, to cook, to shake hands with the doctors, to clean manically after the transplant, to sterilise, to comb hair, to hug, to caress, to support, to bring suitcases for the admissions, to come on hospital visits, to collect the reports, to phone the other children who have stayed at home, to organise, to run all the family’s life.