Odette's Still Born 1996 Poem by Terry Collett

The baby
still born
just the brief time
to hold

before they
took her away.
You didn't
want her

to be taken
wanted
to hold her close
to stare

at the sleeping
features
unbreathing.
No farewell wave

or look making.
You wanted
to breath life
into her

small nostrils
kiss her into life
pray her eyes
would open

at the last moment
but the eyes
stayed closed.
Unmoving tiny

pink fingers
sculptured neat.
You wanted her
to suck

your milky dugs
but the lips
remained shut
pinky white

tingeing blue.
Just the still
born baby
and you.