“Patel, a 33-year-old woman who lives in Indiana, was accused of feticide – specifically, illegally inducing her own abortion – and accused of having a baby whom she allowed to die. The facts supporting each count are murky, but a jury convicted Patel and she was sentenced to 20 years in prison.” – Emily Bazelon, The New York Times Magazine
You had a name no one
could hold between their
teeth. So they pronounced
a sentence. Had you the choice,
you would pilgrim
to the Vermilion. It is no
Ganges, but you could dream for tiger’s
blood, for eight tributaries to open
into palms bearing girls unfettered. Before your baby
was a baby, could it float? Could
a stillness of breath be the air asking
for alchemy as you cast your life as a spell? These days
the world is looking for witches. You had been
searching for a day beyond labor, option
of pleasure, a choice unscripted
by parents, borders unscripted
by choices, a passing
salvation. You had not
expected this state – punishment
for a wrung womb. These days
you mourn: when you are free, you won’t
be able to bear the children you
wanted. In silence, you pronounce your name as if it came
from the crucible of river, from the first throat broken
into a cobra of desiccated streams.
from Miracle Marks (Northwestern University Press, 2019) by Purvi Shah
