Miscarriage

It was seven years before I could look at pregnant women, babies and toddlers without feeling a deep sense of loss. I hope hospital care for miscarriage, especially for older women (I was 35) has improved in the last nineteen years. But care is dependent on individuals — their training, their personal experiences, their prejudices, and what kind of day they’ve had — so it’s probably just as arbitrary.

Miscarriage

Silent rows of empty seats —
No comfort here.
White coat exudes sterility,
Dictates efficiency.
Ultrasound eye coldly penetrates,
Threatens to confirm.
Black screen darker than a moonless sky,
Endless.
Sentence passed with alarming deficiency
No room here for sentiment or sympathy.
Textbook statistics stain the whiteboard,
Blaming my maturity.
Expectant eyes plead for leniency,
Helpless.
Guilty of dancing too fast —
No music now.

Image credit: Pixabay