Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Tom DonlonJanuary 16, 2012

It’s a natural process, yes,
the body’s way to say no
to the embryo, the little one
clinging to the womb
the fragile, developing form,
baby, the Mr. or Mrs. whoever
you were going to be
had not the body said no,
something is amiss, this birth
will not happen, you month old,
fledgling child, you echo
of the heartbeat, the desire
of your mother, her womb
the home, the percolator,
the starting place of the life
you did not grow into, you
intricate DNA, the intertwining
of your parents, you, longed for,
the light in your mother’s eyes,
you, who cannot be carried,
loved one, spark of life,
stopped, discharged, free to go,
no room at the inn, denied
the parting labial entry
into the world, miscarriage
of justice, we will never
forget you.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Scott Loudon and his team filming his documentary, ‘Anonimo’ (photo courtesy of Scott Loudon)
This week, a music festival returns to the Chiquitos missions in Bolivia, which the Jesuits established between 1691 and 1760. The story of the Jesuit "reductions" was made popular by the 1986 film ‘The Mission.’
The world can change for the better only when people are out in the world, “not lying on the couch,” Pope Francis told some 6,000 Italian schoolchildren.
Cindy Wooden April 19, 2024
Our theology of relics tells us something beautiful and profound not only about God but about what we believe about materiality itself.
Gregory HillisApril 19, 2024
"3 Body Problem" is an imaginative Netflix adaptation of Cixin Liu's trilogy of sci-fi novels—and yet is mostly true to the books.
James T. KeaneApril 19, 2024