The Red Thread

by Sarah Ahrens

---

I am umbilical,
ancient with afterbirths,

a warp and weft
of artery cords

and vessel fibers
echoing your early

heartbeat, braided
with breath.

I want to tell you
what I saw.

I want to tell you
what I heard.

---

Sarah Ahrens received her PhD in literature from Cornell University. She has taught literature, creative writing, and expository writing at Auburn Maximum Security Prison, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University. Her creative nonfiction and academic essays have been published in The Longridge Review, Modern Loss, The Washington Post, Avidly (a Los Angeles Review of Books channel), and Romantic Circles. "The Red Thread" comes from her poetic memoir, Mother Minotaur, which is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press (2026).

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