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And this is called
"A Fetus in Winter."

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In the beginning, he
taught me to chop wood.

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Axes and beer and steamy breath
and better wear those leather

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gloves, hun, you'll
cut off your hand.

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At the end, he took me practice
driving with snow chains

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all the way up into old growth
forest, yelling in my ear

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as the truck veered
off the muddy road.

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Later we slipped
side by side down

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that same path past the barn
on something like garbage

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can lids with no handles.

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I'd already left him once,
just after the rabbit died.

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And soon we divide
up everything--

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our dreams, our breath,
even the death between us.

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But this last day I slide
down that hill over and over,

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his blood and mine growing
inside me, and pray the danger

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will decide for me.

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Instead of stumbling into
the clinic the next week,

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my cervix twisting, as if to
give birth, dragging him there

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with me, as though
performing some sort

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of ancient sacred ritual.

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