Recollections of Dread and Deliverance

Dearest, when you haemorrhaged

(I am of a sudden with hurt and horror

recalling it these near-three decades on),

when back in the ward after the birthing

the nurse drew down from your white face

the bedcover to uncover that swamp

of blood from your wounded womb,

that crimson saturation of nightdress

and sheet, I plunged to pleas and please!

and when they wheeled you on the trolley

away to the theatre, not now for new life

but for your life, I feared you’d gone for good

but by the doctor’s good hand the Hand

of God touched you, staunched you, spared you

for me and our newborn daughter and all

the other loved ones who loved you

as I loved you and love you still with kisses

and wide wishes and everlasting longings.

Comfort

Two burning logs

lie alongside each other

in the paddock,

keeping each other, and me,

warm in the mid-autumn night.

Andrew Lansdown