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Howard Wright

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Independence

Of course he had the sudden ability to please -
he was a stranger after all - but when he’d finished
for the nth time you dreamed rivers of blood

that stopped. As he said, standing back a discreet
                                                             distance,
he wasn’t perfect, could he bind and gag you?
And now, three months on, wants it so again.

Therefore, I must assume from this distance,
as you unravel the space infesting that shy clinic
like a magpie stealing back its independence,

something obscene kicks sideways to the swelling
walls of your womb. You know this is good and fine
for yourself and the father, really it is for the best.

And comfort comes in many disguises: here’s a
                                                     foreign doctor
with no mouth but dressed in a beautiful jade smock.
He’s saying the pain doesn’t last, you will love again

then he removes your mouth and opens you up.

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