[Untitled]

the sac

itself wasclear

and I cleaned itlike a window

and in the windowsaw my baby

our baby[birdlike

mouth opennasalarea still

oversizedlike a beak]eye’s aperture blue-black

head thrownbackand twisted beginning

to separateneck brok

en in the contractions’violencetwo arms

two legstailbone translucent... [whatcolor is

the baby?]silent heart [sac contains“chorionic cavity”]

with utmost tendernessI [verbed] itinto a clear plastic

containerheld a flashlightunder it

[I saw...it was like ...I felt...]

I photographed it[stored it in thefridge until...

looked at itfrom time

to time... I felt...by that Friday when

the mobile phlebotomistcame I transferred it

into the barcodedspecimen cup in the kit

it had broken furtherI knew as I swirled it in

phosphate buffered salineas directed my baby-our

baby—was falling apartfrondosum lifted, swayed

in the whirlingsolution obscurant

I handed thissingular life over

never saw my child

again