There are parts
my wife will always remember:

the exhaustion, hunger,

and the kicking
in her belly.

I’ll remember the rain,
and the steam rising
from the streets—

God’s last-ditch effort
to tidy things up

a bit before you
got here.

 

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Francis Daulerio is the author of two collections of poetry and art. His 2015 debut, If & When We Wake, chronicles the process of healing after loss. His forthcoming collection, a 50th anniversary reinterpretation of Richard Brautigan’s Please Plant This Book, will benefit The American Foundation for Suicide prevention.