|
Delivery |
36-year-old Andrea Yeats,
a Texas mother of five,
methodically drowned all
of her children and then
phoned the police ...
- Crime/Punishment with Bill Bickel
How your bath groans
with mass. Pushed down,
heavy, grieving
a sigh, inaudible
as the muffled gulps
of your third born losing
air. How water heaves
into every cavity,
the mouth, nose, throat.
Then rushes quietly
into his lungs.
How it silences sound.
How you plunge
their backs resisting
the urge to lift each
wrestling body from shock
wate... grave... Mother.
How you rely
on trust and weight.
How Mary wails
beside you waiting.
Even your nine month old
senses something
has caved
in.
How you feel
each body spill
into being.
How you watch
them pivot
from the womb,
See their limbs creak
and grow ...
how their flesh holds on.
How then, you cloak
their still faces.
Behold silence,
and knowing ...
and knowing.
copyright 2004
Charlotte
O'Brien |
