GETTING IT DOWN
Sometimes I have to
run out of the shower quickly
to get a poem down
or write bits rudely
like a phone number
on a paper serviette
or beside an agenda
But all this is better
than a still-birth
or having a baby die inside
and carrying it to term
or looking surprised
at what popped into the can
of the bush-toilet
disturbing the flies
I’ve met a woman
who had both these things happen
She also said
she felt nothing
down there
That’s how it can happen
I suppose
—Helen Pavlin
____
originally appeared in "Collected Poems" in 1993.