You better not show me up, you bloody little devils
In the Hayward, you suddenly all seem so little
Helpless, bow-legged and stumbling all over the place
Watching you, is like watching your first steps again

Standing for a long time, looking anxiously around
My little ones
I see you walking across the gallery floor

My lines, my drawings, my sweethearts, wispy-haired and still blue
From an unfortunate birth that was quite dangerous
I am still here watching you

Oh to take the baby dangling from between my legs and into my arms
To breathe life to the full into the grey scales of foetal cells
To make whole something real, wondrous and alive

To stop the past at certain points
To not go so far along the pier that I could not find my way back again

My game of life’s dramas is shortened now into a series of predictable outcomes
Yet I can replay over and over, the moments I conceived you
The moments, the ideas came first into my head and my heart
Then and there, I am always alive in you

Tracey Emin: Love Is What You Want is at the Hayward Gallery till 29 August 2011