Unmounted Oilgraph // 8” x 10”

"She said when she was born
she was a blue baby

pulled into the world
five weeks early
by a doctor who couldn't add
or knew the seasons for things

steel bins and tubes
and mama cried
to hold her little wing

thin as paper
and the next breath
always a prayer

in time she was fine
and mama could hold her

but blue babies you see
when brought back to mama
think that she will take up their breath
again for them
and quit breathing

the nurses revived her
but mama never picked her up again

ever"