Neonatal

It's the child
not death that gets at you;

The way his father
Clutches him to his bosom

The way the mother
Stares blankly on;

Deprived of neonatal joy
Denied it's parenthood.

It's the way he lowers him
Into his eternal bed of dark earth

The way he looks back
At his wife bravely, silently wailing.

It's the baby
Not death that gets at you;

His darken, once radiant face
His tiny fingers in a final clutch

His innocence
His deprivation

It's the baby


Not death.


~ Jude Ifeme



Burying my newly born nephew was my first, he was just one week old. The hardest thing in the world is to ever have something you wish for but couldn't keep. Watching my sister and her husband was devastating, but I was decimated at the sight of the dead baby, and the thought of all the things that could have been.

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