Fed babies for 12 hrs in the Neonatal ICU

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Baby Girl Found

by Francette Cerulli

He found her wrapped in a brown towel

Beside the highway department dumpster.

She was so cold she was blue, so new

her umbilical stump still drooped softly

from her belly like the limp stem

of some fantastic fruit.



He picked her up in his huge gloved

highway department hands and

carried her to his truck. Inside the cab

he turned on the light, peeled the damp towel

from her body and held her

under the blast of the truck heater.



Giant midwife bent over her in the frozen morning,

He watched for the smallest sign.

It was her second birth.





Comments

  1. RudeeAugust 9, 2011 at 7:45 PM

    So profound. You find the most amazing poetry.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnnieHAugust 10, 2011 at 6:28 PM

    I fed and held methadone babies for 12 hrs. Boy, there's an education.

    ReplyDelete

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Hey, thanks for your thoughts and your time:>)

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