Saw you on the gurney,
finger twists in stringy hair,
forehead like used tinfoil.
Woman/child all alone.

I would have to get to you but
bed three needed morphine,
and I needed a suture kit for
the cutter down in "two."

Just under an hour left
in this double shift- I'm fading fast
my swollen feet are aching...

Your trembling shoulders
stopped my thoughts,
I circled to your gurney.

"What's your name?"

(I've done it, don't' have time for this, I'm certain.)

"Jenna-Lou" you offered, as
I turned to wash my hands.

"I just lost my baby."

Did I hear you right I wondered?

"I am thirteen and a freshman,
and I'm bleeding pretty bad."

Nurse face on I launched
Into the ABC's of healing-
Airway, Breathing, Circulation...
"Just lay back, now, Jenna- Lou."

Stethoscope upon your heart
tapping to your rhythm when your voice
flew up and slapped me with-
"Abortion yesterday."

I am here to help you
Jenna-Lou, angel nor devil...
Your face melted as you whispered low,
my heart was brought up cold.

"They extracted all the tissue,"
you reported like a doctor.
"I was just two months along-
I'm bleeding wicked bad."

Gathered wits about me-
she is lost, alone and frightened.
They said they "extracted tissue,"
made it sterile, with their words!

"Be right back" I stuttered
as my eyes neared to brimming-
stood alone inside the med-room
hearing phantom haunted cries...


Tears spilled, I imagined, from
the countless budding bodies?
The countless women laboring
to birth grief and despair?

Jenna-Lou was examined as
I squeezed her hand in my hand.
She pressed her weary head to mine,
we melded heavy hearts.

"I wanted to keep it-
but my boyfriend
said he'd leave me
and my daddy said
I was a whore-
I didn't have a choice!"

I bit off my anger
at the men who had betrayed her...
at the thunderous boom of gavels,
at the voices never heard.

I've spent thirty years
attending living
and "extracted."
Patients squeezed within
the forceps of societal disdain.

Life and death
are split decisions-
Supreme razors
carving winners-
Draping black robes
on the tree of life...
and calling it a day.