I'll be as
brief as I can. This young girl went into labour on her own and gave birth to
the baby in her bathroom. The baby was alive, and, terrified, I would imagine,
she killed it.
I've had
this in my head for about a week now, and I am now reasoning with exactly why
that is. It creates a picture in my mind that is pure sadness and I don't know
how else to really explain it. In a way, it reminds me of a bit about Ernest
Hemingway that I heard on the radio. Someone once challenged Hemingway to
create a story using only six words, and so he said, `For sale. Baby shoes.
Never worn.`
The young
girl who killed her baby reminded me of Hemingway's writing, because he often
wrote delicately about terrible things. What isn't said is often what really
stands out. With this tragedy, I wanted to keep it to myself and tell no one,
because who am I to share such a story? I ended up telling my mom. I wanted to
know what she thought. She cringed when I described the nature of the delivery,
and I could tell that she really empathized with the young girl.
`She must have been so scared,` said Mom.
The story is
so tragic that I can`t really think about it directly. Only backwards through a
mirror upside down sort of thing will do. I glanced around and sighed. `I hate
that I know this and I hate that I am fretting about it. It is just a horrible
thought.`
Mom said to
me the inevitable when she detected fervour in my tone: `Why don`t you write
something about it?`
I responded:
`Some things you just can`t write down, because they are not meant to be
showcased.` Again I thought about Hemingway.
`How about a
poem?` she asked.
I shrugged.
To delve into a gruesome tragedy such as this and then attempt to wax poetic
sounded utterly monstrous. I would not be entering this into the medium of poesy.
`How about a
poem from the baby's perspective?`
I shuddered.
That seemed even worse.
`Maybe baby
forgives mum.`
And I began
sobbing. Humans take care of each other. This girl felt so alone that she
couldn't reveal her pregnancy to anyone. Maybe, somewhere out there, baby
forgives mum. Maybe someday, she will forgive herself.
No comments:
Post a Comment