A Mother
The doctor thinks she doesn’t want to be a mother.
He wants her guilt, his surgery a confessional.
She thinks he would like to see her sufferand only when he believes he has crushed her
does he send her form to another professional.
The doctor thinks she doesn’t want to be a mother.She doesn’t try to convince him—why bother,
he sees the choice as objectionable, quasi-criminal.
She thinks he would like to see her suffer.She says nothing to her children or their father,
whispers to friends who are non-judgmental.
The doctor thinks she doesn’t want to be a mother,not asking if there is money or time or love for another.
Her husband won’t understand, is not capable.
She thinks he would like to see her suffer.The white pills take two days to work. It is over,
the blood passed, the relief and pain unequivocal.
The doctor thinks she doesn’t want to be a mother.
She thinks he would like to see her suffer.
A Mother by Sam Szanto | Garden Lavender Poetry Reed Diffuser Set
Sam Szanto lives in Durham, United Kingdom. Her poetry pamphlet This Was Your Mother was published by Dreich Press in 2024. Splashing Pink (with Annie Cowell) was published by Hedgehog Press and was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. Sam won the Charroux Poetry Prize and the First Writer Poetry Prize.
