The child is born, grows up, and breaks off from the mother and eventually the mother ages: "I wither and you break from me," says Wright. Unlike the metaphor of John, where the branch dies and becomes kindling, Wright's independent child continues to "dance in living light," and the child becomes a fertile "fruit" itself, rather than something dead like kindling. The child's autonomy is presented as something positive, although painful for the mother.
Wright's conscious or unconscious echoing of the Gospel of John as the child "breaks" and "becomes light" suggests that women are capable of allowing their offspring to feel the joys of maturity the God of the Gospel of John frowns upon such a sense of independence from God. The Gospel says that humanity can do nothing without God, and that humans only bring forth fruit when they "abideth"...
She reminds her child: "I am the earth, I am the root, / I am the stem that fed the fruit, the link that joins you to the night." Without women, the child and all of humanity would not exist. However, the mother is willing to take comfort in that knowledge that she is the root of the child, while she sees her child try to become more independent of her 'root.' She does not need to be the clinging vine: she is proudly part of the life-giving earth and root as well. Wright's mother is not a jealous mother, and does not begrudge her child's occasional carelessness. She sees the child as more than a branch -- the child is a living being, a kind of 'fruit' in and of itself. The fruit must fall from the branches of the tree to be generative and bring forth new beings into the world.
