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.
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.
