Don't Ask How I Got
Pregnant At Thirty-Seven

Not in a third world country, but right on the
Peninsula of Destin, Florida, with birth control
Pills in the cabinet and condoms at every store.
We were at the end. We had exchanged words.
We had suffered long silences, averted eyes at
Restaurants. I was making plans to move on. We
Shared a bed of bitterness and misunderstanding.
One of us sleeping in the guest room would have
Been silly, and which of us would have left the master
Bed anyway? One night he reached for me when I
Was crying. Two injured people entangled for sheer
Comfort. Afterward, we shivered on our opposite
Sides, stunned. When I found out, abortion was a
Certainty. I could not carry a part of him with me.
I could not forever see his face. After the last copper
Pan had been hung in the new kitchen, I drank
Raspberry tea out of my grandmother's dandelion
Tea cup and ran a bath in the claw-footed tub and
For the first time in as long as I could remember, I
Was not angry. In the beginning we said we did not
Meet by accident and I knew I could love again the
Face I had loved a lifetime ago.

Rebecca Lu Kiernan

If you've any comments on this poem, Rebecca Lu Kiernan would be pleased to hear from you.