Infertility

I Could Be a Whale Shark

Bolinao, Philippines

I am worried about tentacles.

How you can still get stung

even if the jelly arm disconnects

from the bell.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil

2018

Prayer with Miscarriage / Grant Us the Ruined Grounds

Dear Boy: It is true: You took two tries
to get here—for your mother and me
to calyx together a body bold
enough to carry the grace of you. Amen.
So forgive us if we still bow inside
the garden of your miscarried becoming—:

grant us the ruined grounds of the first prayer
fiercer than our cleaved breathing. How could we
rush to rinse the word loss from our de-parented mouths?
Remember this: we surrendered a new name
for everything to the tender hour at our chest.

Geffrey Davis

2018

October 14—The Dow Closes Up 10015

I bleed a little, peyote tea waits in the refrigerator,
a Ferris Wheel rolls and rolls over the highway
after the miscarriage, we search 
for rings with missing stones, unmatched earrings
sell our gold, ride the Ferris Wheel bigger than Paris,
my parents pray for us, I play Dylan’s “Spanish Boots”
over and over, the sunroof fills with stars 
like watching a film of strangers I recognize
but don’t really know
Schuyler says you can’t get at sunset naming colors
between the liars trees and shopping carts
we buy a house, cry in bed, leave 
the child unnamed
pink lemon pearly blue white

Susan Briante

2010

Poems

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Infertility

I Could Be a Whale Shark

Prayer with Miscarriage / Grant Us the Ruined Grounds

October 14—The Dow Closes Up 10015

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