14 weeks

Kitzinger* says
when I feel it move
it will be like a little fish
zigzagging inside.
Kitzinger says
it’s about as long as my index finger —
like the pearlescent gourami
in its father’s aquarium.

A little fish
or a mouse inside
fully formed, with little toes
a beating heart
and rice-paper skin
If a boy, a little penis
and if a girl,
a little womb.

*Anthropologist, childbirth educator and author Sheila Kitzinger

(First published in An Endless Afternoon)