Stillborn

thoughts spiral
the crown, whirring and popping
images burned onto retina
upside and
down
deep where the scan glows red
blinking out a memory

why can’t this collection of neurons
forget her face
whose lips were accidentally,
reflexively,
sloughed off,
with that no-longer-quite-sterile gauze?

she was meant to breathe

her.
not breathing.

eclipsed sound
burst eardrums
made deaf and mute,
senseless
good as a knock-out punch
but worse
knowing it was coming,

not fair
to promise life
and give,
instead,
the end of everything

1Sagefemme All Rights Reserved 2016