Kate Daniels — The Addict’s Mother: Birth Story

She wasn’t watching when they cut him

Out.  C-section, you know.  Green drape

Obscuring the mound of ripened belly

They extracted him from.  He spilled

Out squalling, already starving.  Still

Stitching her up, they fastened him

To her breast so he could feed. There

He rooted for the milk, so lustful

In his sucking that weeping roses

Grew from the edges of her nipples.

For weeks, they festered there,

Blooming bloody trails anew each

And every time he made a meal of her.

I know what you’re thinking.

But he was her child.

She had to let him

Do that to her.

Copyright 2018 Kate Daniels.

Reprinted from Five Points vol. 18, #2 2017. To be published In the Months of My Son’s Recovery by Kate Daniels. Forthcoming from LSU Press (2019).