to the ladies:
leanne’s been sporting extra cleavage
to distract away from her chemo port scar.
it seems to be working.
rena is 13 days old today.
i fed her in a parking lot.
it was glorious.
a glorious parking lot
with a dad
and a baby
and spaces waiting
for cars.
—–
last week leanne took rena down
to meet tina for lunch.
mario came too.
she gave them a [...]
that tina (the birthmom)
refused an epidural?
she wanted to feel it, she said.
leanne said (to me):
what a time to decide to say no to drugs.
tina said (to leanne):
this is a way to show the baby that i care.
i said (to tina):
you’re a rockstar.
rena’s meconium came back clean today.
no trace of drugs, no trace of nothing.
—
two hours [...]
at 5:25pm, after 9 strange hours and 3 strange pushes,
rena rose
came out.
four parents, standing there,
passing her from love to love
almost two years to the day
when we thought the baby
would come out of leanne.
a slightly different route.
—-
just now, tina’s mom stopped by with tina’s two daughters.
they wanted some alone time with rena.
when we came in to [...]
tina is in the bed
the new american bible is in her purse
mario is at one end of the couch.
tina’s aunt is at the other.
they have not started the induction yet.
tina pees.
the nurse puts the monitor on tina’s belly and finds the heartbeat.
leanne is in a chair with a look somewhere close to bewildered.
i look and [...]
the first time we met tina and mario
we ordered drinks at the restaurant.
the waiter brought an extra glass of iced tea
that no one ordered.
i remember it sitting on the table, untouched.
last week we met tina and mario again
at another restaurant.
another drink order
and a lousy appetizer plate.
the waiter brought an iced tea
that no one ordered.
—–
tonight, i [...]
i am teaching a workshop
in portugal.
before teaching, i spent
a couple days on the beach,
crisping myself and eating fresh snapper
with lemon juice and bowl after bowl of olives.
i used to hate olives.
but then i told myself that everyone whose mouth
i admired loved them and that it was not olives
that were wrong, but me.
and i forced myself [...]
