“Jessica McClure, often called ‘Baby Jessica,’ was the eighteen-month-old child who became famous in 1987 when she fell down an old well in Texas. Her fifty-eight-hour rescue was widely televised. I wrote this poem based on a morning show interview with Jessica in her early adulthood. After my son was born, I also began to wonder about the strange ways in which early events might shape our lives even as we can’t remember them. As a parent, I also have to live with this hard truth: There’s only so much one can do to protect their children from harm. This poem is from my forthcoming poetry collection, BAD CELL, which examines both parenting and the idea of queer inheritance.” 
—Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers