Writing from the stemistry lab
Agonising light
by Marilyn Longstaff
Age-related post-code lottery
as language becomes technical
with paid-for IVF:
unforgiving hormone injections,
procedures with dirty magazines.
Though they never talked
of an embryo, embryos
foetus, foetuses
but of a baby, babies,
fertilized in the indigo laboratory,
some stored in the scratchy fridge,
terminal molecules in their last chance saloon.
Stirrups, the multi-coloured hospital bed
gynaecologist’s whispering rubber seal,
as she catches a whiff of the scented radiator;
smell of hope and creak of the despairing door.
Unwanted cramps.
A crisp tissue mops away dreams.