After Great Pain

continued

Had she not lain on that bed with a boy

All those years ago, where would they be, she wondered.

She and the child that wouldn’t have been but was now

No more. She would know nothing

Of mothering. She would know nothing

Of death. She would know nothing

Of love. The three things she’d been given

To remember. Wake me up, please, she said,

When this life is over. Look at her—It’s as if

The windows of night have been sewn to her eyes.