I gave a woman a baby once —
It was only a small one
but it felt tremendous
Didn’t foresee me turning into
Bobby Responsible
over that
but I did
For a while it worked well
Then that baby died
Left a baby shaped hole — a very small one
We leaked fast from that baby shaped hole
and dissipated
I came alone to Rockdale
to peel wallpaper
and beer labels
In a Rockdale apartment
down by the old mill
I think about that baby
who is somewhere babies go
when they’re not alive anymore
and about her
wherever she is now
I think she would not know me now
I don’t know what to call myself
Bobby Responsible may still work
but not the same way
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Dark Matter 
May 11th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
This is remarkable. I see you reciting it with a perfectly flat affect. Having lost a baby, it brought back many aches. You are so good.
May 12th, 2010 at 6:57 am
Thanks for all your recent comments, Pearl.
Rockdale is a small milltown not too far from here that for some years was a depressed area that for a while was where a lot of my divorced male acquaintances seemed to end up in shabby apartments. I tried here to write a story that reflected some of the desperate nature of the area. Not based in any one person’s experience, I should add.