Red as a Newborn, White as a Corpse

[Alisaura]

They had such hope, such joy
Anticipation, clothes and toys
Photographs and a film crew
(I came in halfway through
didn't know the title and the ending)
I hoped too, happy
An uplifting, triumph-against-the-odds piece...
I thought.
After so long, success... the day arrives
Complications, problems, surgery, so many doctors!
Mother and child touch only a moment...
"Trouble breathing... oxygen,"
From womb to world then plastic box
Parents ever hopeful watch
(Still the film crew films)
In vain. She dies.
The father's arms...
Grief and grief - weeping and tears
(on both sides of the screen)
They keep her, the babe that barely lived
They bathe her
- so still, little limbs wafting in the water
They clothe her, they show her to family and friends
She is held and cuddled, passed around, tucked in
But she feels none of it, sees nothing
Eyes barely opened before forever closing
They take her home from hospital
But she is dead!
(Is it sick? Is it closure?)
Their daughter is not this sack of blue flesh.
For a week they pretend she lives
Before the funeral
Finally the priest, the mourners
Finally the coffin, the crematorium
Finally the sad awful inescapable reality
Christened by the tears of the mother
Lay the little body down, at last
Consign her to the flames, let her go.


.............
(just to prove U2 isn't the only band I can swipe lyrics from)


------------------
if you listen to the motion of the wind in the mountains
maybe you can hear them talking like I do...
(Icehouse - Great Southern Land)



[This message has been edited by Alisaura (edited 05-16-2001).]

 

[travu2]

Wow, that's pretty heavy stuff. I think you did a great job in selecting just the right words to move the poem along. I was surprised by the end, "for a week they pretend she lives."
I'm curious about what the inspiration was for this poem? Is it based on a documentary?

 

[The Wanderer]

you drop some pretty heavy stuff on us sometimes Ali, I'm with travu2 on this one, I'd like to know more about the inspiration for this piece

 

[Alisaura]

I'm kinda young for such heavy stuff, eh?

*wonders where she got that from*
There was a doco on TV (ABC) a few months ago, called "Losing Layla", about a couple who'd been trying to have a child for years and years, and had evidently been filmed for the doco when they successfully conceived. As I said, I came in after it started, and since it wasn't commercial TV, there were no ad breaks or things to let me know what it was called and so how it would inevitably end... So I had no idea what sort of tragedy was going to take place. I got really caught up in it, they were so happy and relieved, and when they lost the baby (Layla, maybe Leila) it hit me really hard... I cried until I felt sick and made one of our cushions (and my jumper and half the couch) very soggy by the time it was over. Just seeing the husband washing his dead daughter...
Well, now you know. Never had any personal experience like that, and having seen that I hope I never do.

 

[BabyGrace]

Ali, that was a powerful piece. I don't think I would have been able to sit through a documentary like that

thanks for the great writing.