Arsenic Lobster
poetry journal |
Issue Fifteen Winter 2007 |
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Artemis, patroness of childbirth Sari Krosinsky "Unfortunately, women in labour will often be invoking me, since my mother Leto carried and bore me without pains, and the Fates have therefore made me patroness of childbirth." -- Artemis, from Robert Graves' The Greek Myths She says she loathes labor-sitting. It's not till she spins to order another martini that I remember her -- back turned, gaze fixed on the closed blinds, humming a tune to blot my wailing. She never wanted this job. It wasn't her fault she gave her mother no pain. She rolled her eyes at the midwife murmuring soft nothings as I heaved against a misplaced placenta. I hung over the edge of the birthing pool nibbling almonds between contractions, careful not to slosh on the carpet. She still doesn't recognize me -- another labor passed, another waning moon. In the end she relented, stroked the damp hair from my forehead, laid a kiss on my brow. |
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About Sari Krosinsky |