For Cookie’s Cousin, locked in the crazy house, not yet 18
Chana Feinstein
​
Birthing a baby she was all night
not like those other
quick nights
when the man came taking
again and again
he was too many Uncles
in one small house
and not enough doors.
Birthing a baby she crouched
squat-legged
it was taking
its time
pushing and tearing at one small door.
She cried you know
bit that cord
right off
that baby
slid down
to the floor
where they found it,
but not her,
dead.