August 25: Poet of the Week, Julianna Baggott, "My Mother Gives Birth"

I know you've been waiting for this announcement.  The winner of this week's Poet of the Week Award is Julianna Baggott.

All kidding aside, Julianna is an astonishing poet.  Her collection, This Country of Mothers, is one of my favorite books of poetry.  Ever.  If you don't believe how good it is, I just have one thing to say:  Suuu-uuuuck it!

Saint Marty is making himself happy this week with Julianna Baggottt.

My Mother Gives Birth

by:  Julianna Baggott

They gave her a form of truth serum,
not to dull the pain, to dull memory.
But she does remember
asking the nurse to take off her girdle--
not a girdle but her skin taut with pain--
that the nurse told her to stop screaming,
the girl one over was having her first
and scared enough already.
She rolled my mother to her side, standard procedure,
handcuffed her to the bed rails, left her to labor alone.
My mother says her last thought was of Houdini,
that she too could fold the bones of her hands
and escape.  I want her to slip free,
to rise up from her bed and totter
out of that dark ward of moaning women.
I want to be born in black dirt.
But her mind went white as cream lidding a cup.
And she does not remember,
although her eyes were open, blank,
how I spun from her body, wailing,
drugged for truth, my wrists on fire.

One of the best out there