Baby Blue

• Shannon Vo, Grade 11
• Poetry
• 2021

A tearless cry felled me from my respite
As the midwife laid you down, your unsullied skin
A moulded boulder on my chest.

Voices float through clogged canals as you flail fruitlessly,
Swelled rolls swallowing words like strands of hair
That shroud the ear at the wind’s command.
Pus-filled sleeve.

White dwarfs bloom flowery stains on her nightgown
Like mildew through a fissure as she reaches for you.
Sweet milk and warmth seep from my threads,
Soiling the air as they return my breath.

Her lassitude abrades and envelops you,
Squeezing your flaccid neck
Between watery, defective bones.

The mucid ceiling widens.
I relish your return: my prison guard.