Ha, one more, OK.
"Life With Sick Kids."
One child coughs once, and is sick for eight weeks.
Then the other child coughs so hard he nearly
vomits, three weeks.
And then stops, and then the fifth child
coughs the first cough.
And then the other delicately and dryly begins to cough.
Death, and the long and short approaches to death,
gently taking them up one by one.
And shaking them, as kids shake boxes at Christmas.
So in bed, on the third day of the blood, when it will
be almost safe to use nothing.
Just a tiny door left open for a resourceful child.
I cannot see, or feel or smell you.
I keep thinking I hear the unconceived one cough
a little introductory cough.