unraveling the resin-soaked bandages keeping my past
immobile and unable to infringe on too much of my day.
The people attached to those words of condolence
are too far away for me to picture them, every new piece of paper says
someone feels sorry for me. The envelopes continue, determined
to excavate my pain with each new handwritten slip of paper
unfurling like a flame from the heart of a two-dimensional beast
each new bouquet of baby's breath and pink roses, pink
"Because we know you lost a baby!" and we're sorry
the tiny pink cheeks that were already dry beneath my fingertips
when they put her in my arms, those tiny hands curled perpetually
into fists, the fingernails barely formed
so tiny compared to every other baby I ever held before
my hopes and dreams and longings already petrifying
on a slab on a cold, stone room in the back of my head.
immobile and unable to infringe on too much of my day.
The people attached to those words of condolence
are too far away for me to picture them, every new piece of paper says
someone feels sorry for me. The envelopes continue, determined
to excavate my pain with each new handwritten slip of paper
unfurling like a flame from the heart of a two-dimensional beast
each new bouquet of baby's breath and pink roses, pink
"Because we know you lost a baby!" and we're sorry
the tiny pink cheeks that were already dry beneath my fingertips
when they put her in my arms, those tiny hands curled perpetually
into fists, the fingernails barely formed
so tiny compared to every other baby I ever held before
my hopes and dreams and longings already petrifying
on a slab on a cold, stone room in the back of my head.
----------
Holly Day is a housewife and mother of two living in
Minneapolis, Minnesota who teaches needlepoint classes in the
Minneapolis school district. Her
poetry has recently appeared in The Worcester Review, Broken Pencil, and Slipstream, and she is the recipient of
the 2011 Sam Ragan Poetry Prize
from Barton College. Her most recent published book is "Notenlesen für Dummies Das Pocketbuch,"
while her novel, "The Trouble With Clare," is due out from Hydra Publications in 2013.
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