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Melissa Joplin Higley
Miscarriage
a golden shovel
after Gwendolyn Brooks
You lived—before I knew you,
splitting into parts—you were
my first primal creation, born
in late blood flushed, you
fell before the doctor even had
a chance to confirm a beat—a
lost present—only my body
wise to your minnowing. You
alone taught me what had died.
Melissa Joplin Higley is the author of First Father (Bottlecap Press). Her poems appear in B_O_D_Y, Feral, Sleet Magazine, Whale Road Review, Writer’s Digest, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, co-facilitates the Poetry Craft Collective, and works as the Book Reviews Co-Editor for MER. melissajoplinhigley.com.
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