“A pregnant woman in Georgia
who was declared brain-dead is being kept
alive by ventilators because of the state’s law
banning abortions, the woman’s mother says,
telling local news that the family has no say
in the matter.”
NBC News, May 15th 2025
still mostly your mother,
an ancient dolphin in her womb,
no gurgling of her stomach,
no talking, no movement,
just soft breaths,
a heart sound like a metronome.
how is that kind
of quiet within a body…haunting or just
not as warm as it was.
were you once kin.
are you now a wasp within a caterpillar.
did you feel that change.
this world might be too loud for you
when you’re removed from her. you’ll be
alive, maybe, likely sightless and unable
to walk. is your gramma pondering
why God didn’t swap your soul
into another womb
when you were still mostly your mother.
your body would have left this world with her,
as nature would have had it.
you’ll be here, maybe, that will be
as it is. for now your mothers’ mother waits
for her dead daughters’ death
upon your arrival by law.
for adrian smith and april newkirk