tanka 0002

Fálki and I have been watching the Amazon mini-series DEAD RINGERS, based on the David Cronenberg film of the same name, which was based on the novel TWINS by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland, which is a fictionalized version of the story of identical twins Stewart and Cyril Marcus.

I'd recommend the series, which is entertainingly different, and I plan to rewatch the film after I finish the series. I don't remember much about the film other than the facts that Jeremy Irons stars and it's about twins.

Anyway, the main characters in all these versions of the story are gynecologists, so maybe our watching the Amazon series played into Fálki's use of "fertility rites" as the prompt today at her Mighty Network.

The series very graphically shows women in childbirth, which is fascinating and gross in a lot of ways. The show plays up the fascinating more than the gross, but the grossness was on my mind as I wrote this tanka based on what I've seen in the show.

I started writing a haiku, by the way, but I could not find a satisfying way to build up to the baby's birth in only two lines, so I stretched to a tanka, which adds a couplet after the haiku.

I like the final result a lot, although, of course, I will edit it as I feel the need.