Return to Top of Page
Menu
  • Close
  • About Us
  • Contributors
  • Donate
  • Opportunities
  • Staff
  • Submissions
  • 20 Years
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Search Website
Literary Mama
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Departments
  • Blog
  • Newsletter

Poetry | October 2017

To Mis-Carry

By Elizabeth Callahan Steiner

“I want her back when you’re done.”
They will toss you out, flush you down.
They won’t know to stop when my Grandpa’s eyes –
like sky – are there.
And your nose? They won’t know.
That’s your daddy and sister –
right there!

“I want her back when you’re done.”
Forty-five minutes of waiting
stacked next to the three months
I carried you.
The brown hands of a nurse handing me hospital Tupperware.

“I want her back when you’re done.”
Tucking you right there in the safety of me.
Self-preservation not letting me look,
but little by little my warmth breaking through coldness.
Carrying you home to the wood of our kinfolk:
Loblolly tall and Maple wide.
Scrubby Oak to decorate your spot
with acorn crowns.

“I want her back when you’re done.”
Your daddy – muddy with earth –
Your sister and I searching the hills and
bases of trees for marble quartz.
Sweating out our grief that day.

“I want her back when you’re done.”
At church it starts and keeps up
through five hymns.
Two creeks flowing, meeting up
at my chin and falling into two open palms:
waiting for the Good Lord to dry them up
so we can pass on dry land.

“I want her back when you’re done.”
In the by and by.

2 replies on “To Mis-Carry”

Mollysays:
November 3, 2017 at 12:48 pm

This is poignant and beautiful and absolutely heart-rending.

Reply
Erinsays:
November 3, 2017 at 2:29 pm

Beautiful and strong.

Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Share This Page

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Copy Link

Elizabeth Callahan Steiner

Learn More

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Don't miss out on Literary Mama news and updates

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Instagram
  • RSS

© 2023 Literary Mama | Search Site | About Us | Staff | Submissions | Privacy Policy