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Poetry | March 2012

Zygotes, Hatched and Delivered

By Laurette Folk

They show us a portrait
of four mystic cells.
In a sterile room,
I am the showcase,
the Diva in blue.

But we’re all blue
with blue pants and
blue shirts and blue
shower caps–
antiseptic, joyless creatures.

You sit there harboring regrets
as a man’s gloved hands shake
between my thighs.
I squirm and bite, taste
sharp, metallic edges.

Count pressures
in hidden places.

A boy-faced man mutters
fine, fine…
I grab your hand,
the only skin on skin
in the room.

I am lukewarm water and wood,
a taut wire of entrails
between skyscrapers.
I am a reservoir
swallowing trees,
a deluge on a forgotten town.

Then, we see them.
Pixels on the screen.
A flash of ethereal white.

Science bursts.
Perfect, someone says.
Perfect.

1 reply on “Zygotes, Hatched and Delivered”

Joanie Fritz Zosikesays:
April 2, 2012 at 10:17 am

This is a such a strong poem. I literally felt myself in that room, although I’ve not shared this experience which I assume is in vitro fertilization. The need for skin on skin, the yearning for human contact is titrated down to the microscopic level and somehow–even in its clinical setting, the fertilization of ovum by sperm, the acceptance of sperm by ovum–in a flash, perfect!– is orgasmic.

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