by Léann Herlihy

Approaching the final quarter, I sit.
Mentally exhausted; a plastic bag
full of milk
strapped to my breast;
a galvanised bucket
spreads my legs.

A group
enters the space;

a baby cradled in the arms of a woman.
Now seated to my left,
both conscious of the milk glands
at our breast.

Shoulders tall, she gives
her swollen breast
to the mouth of the child.

Mirroring, I raise
a needle to my breast;
puncture it.

We both drain the contents –
her’s into the mouth of a child,
mine into the mouth of a bucket.

Léann Herlihy participated in both Cumulator 10 and Cumulator 12. Above, is a gestural extract from the final hours of Cumulator 12, performed on December 10 2016, at Echo Echo Dance Studios, Derry. Photographs courtesy of Jordan Hutchings.