a poet’s work

 

 

He beat the baby out of my kid sister

left them both for dead

splatters above the baseboards like

spray from an abstract painter’s gun

“my blood” she tells me with a touch of airs

paid for

by his hauling her

to the top of the stairs

fetus tumbling out of her womb

even animals don’t do that.

 

Jaws drop when the cops show up

in all their subtlety and sophistication

she’s giving the thing

mouth to mouth resuscitation

 

the law had to

pry

it

out of her hands

why,

they didn’t say

 

viable fetus is what they said.

 

She named it,

provided a decent

burial in a proper graveyard

talks to it moribund around a drunken clock

while her common law pimp

does 90 days in the workhouse.

 

“WE’LL PUT A HAMMER IN HIS HAND THAT’LL SOFTEN HIM UP!”

 

judge banged the gavel

without

a second guessing.

 

It falls

upon

a

column

of

script

to teach

these

wayward

men

their

lesson.

 

Ya think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Copyright 2002 Robin Plan and troublewaits.com.  All rights reserved.