Never

A mother should never
let her baby die. He should always
wear a little cap; it is her job
to keep him warm.

A dead child is beyond
the bounds of fleecy
pajamas, and so the mother
is always anxious.

It is wrong to leave a child
unfed. A dead child
is doomed to want. To want
back in, Peter Pan

at the window, watching
the mother with her new child.
And even as she dresses
and suckles the living,

the mother feels the dead
child’s want, mirror
to her own. Her breasts will never
be emptied.