The Embryo Poem by Donna Ialongo

born in a rioting protest of umber leaves
was i
swathed in a bed of sterile sheets
marked for
the abortive nail to pierce my stomach
gushing blood.
the end of promise of life
and the instant forgetting of memory not yet remembered

'i spared ((it)) this:
the authored anonymity,
the rack of love-too-soon.'

you spared me this:
diamond waves playing leap-frog,
parenting one brown smiled likeness.

all enclosed now, a waste product
am i
the unused embryo of some degenerate star

(October 29,1965)