Hamlet Jack and Colette Mia Carpenter

Hamlet Jack Carpenter
born at 21 weeks and 4 days
on March 15, 2005 at 9:17pm
and died 36 minutes later


I am not alone, and never will be -
your absence is my company

- Claribel Alegria


Colette Mia Carpenter
with us for 2 1/2 weeks
miscarried on September 24, 2006


She welcomes hello
with eyelashes that blink
in waves
and I am the shore,
the resting place for her smile.

She shrinks
with fragile breath
bolstered by a long silver cord,
as if connected to heaven.
God makes oxygen machines.

She says bye
but my stomach says
wait,
and I wonder when I return
if she'll be here.

Empty space
will wave to me.
A hurricane
with a magnitude of years.
And the richter scale of sobs
will be shooting off the charts.

-Judith Pordon


Maryland, USA