IN A SIDE WARD.

[dadio]

She sat, the woman
You saw, in a side ward

Holding her dead child.
The nurse with you

Closed the door on the
Woman and whispered

An apology. The woman
And dead child remain in

Your mind’s grip like a one
Gripping the last few coins

For a final meal before death.
She’s there still in your mind,

Locked in a room marked do
Not throw away. In the few

Moments your saw her in the
Side ward the woman kissed

The lifeless child’s head as if
By some miracle she could raise

From the dead. Nine months
Is all the lifetime the child had,

Still born, in perfect form, hands,
Fingers, toes, snub nose. She sits

In the room inside your head
Amongst the other ghosts, the

Forgotten, the loved, the dead.