April Salzano lives with her husband and two sons in rural Pennsylvania. She is currently working on a memoir on raising a son with autism and several collections of poetry. Her poetry and prose have been nominated for Pushcart Awards, and her writing has appeared in journals such as The Camel Saloon, Centrifugal Eye, Deadsnakes, Visceral Uterus, Salome, Poetry Quarterly, and Writing Tomorrow.Her chapbook, The Girl of My Dreams, is currently available from Dancing Girl Press, who will also publish her chapbook Thoughts in Reverse in March, 2017. More of her work can be read at aprilsalzano.blogspot.com
Unbirthing the Second
Son. Revision
allows him to breathe once
before oxygen is sucked back.
Hard-earned cry is eaten.
Pink bags of lungs deflate.
Whole body vanishes from beneath
nurse’s hands pumping air. Stoned
husband goes back to chair
beside bed, eyes close. Sister
does not appear in delivery
room as surrogate of needed comfort
as needle of numbing
agent pulls away. Opening closes,
threads of suture removed.
Gasps swallowed as muscle
goes slack. Cracked-open hip joints
re-hinge, and no one ever looks
into blue eyes to find vacancy.