Lucky Dip Number 23
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Mother and Child
In different places apart they lie, A woman once haunted by her baby's cry Whom earlier treatment might have saved Instead of being laid in an unmarked grave. For the death certificate that gave the cause Noted fourteen days when there'd been a pause While meningitis* claimed the child Before a doctor was by her side. Perhaps that death had broken her heart For her life was lived in a place apart, A place apart that her burial paid For in unmarked grave with others she's laid, Where the cemetery records bear her name Though the site is uncertain even then. "Postnatal depression", the family said, But I grew up believing her dead Until too late to visit the place Where she had been hidden away in disgrace, Though I know that my older siblings knew And made visits to her with my mother too, A mother who died while I still was quite young And before my grandmother's time had come. I think you will understand if I say Although it is known in the normal way I have written this poem to give a name To a woman whose life was hidden in shame. |
* cerebrospinal meningitis on 14 April 1907 aged 7 months
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