The Boat Women by Mark Roper
She is crossing the sea .
with the germ of a child
she does not want to bear.
It will not register
at Customs: the soft load
presses most on her mind.
There is no ritual
for this: the decision
to stay single, the end
Of a possible life.
She has studied pictures
of embryos, the size
of safety pins, human.
She is not in the dark.
There will always remain
a scar, flawed tissue
where a branch didn’t grow.
She will come home having
lost a little weight,
gained a little quiet around
her heart. Her grief can’t be
made public:illegal
this complex compromise.
this human choice, to be
swept under the carpet.
Here are weeping mothers,
children no one wanted.
women worn to the bone.
She chose not to increase.
She has stayed in one piece.
Her body is her own.
