C.W.: Abortion

GLASS, KELP

Two nights in a train,
the adagio of her hands

over tiffin boxes of food
She always fed me so singingly

curries, cake, crumble, pita, pizza, cookies, every day a feast

Inside me, love as alga

We were traveling
to her mother’s house

which she still
considered home

because
she could not consider ours

I did not question so much as obsess

Overgrown algae:
fulgent,
filigreeing out of bounds,
can smother
coral reefs

When we spoke of abortion,
I heard
What have you done?/
the words arhythmic timeless.

Her shame aged me girl crouched on the sofa

body curling
& uncurling
its young womb
in high-pitched altos

What is it to be borne?

but she was scared too, the color of her fear, sargassum

In some places, they bang vessels to scare ghosts

Some days I am a ghost of her
like she was a ghost…