Hymn to the Ones kept Secret
Oh legion to whose births I was not invited
I will sit me down and wait with patience
by the outflow of the sewage pipes.
I will sit me down and wait
where baffles and grids catch collectibles.
The little bloated ones will come bobbing.
Un-slapped, breathless,
no one in attendance
come to me, where shit blooms in the briney.
I will neither weep over nor cradle you
small people, born in the dead of night.
I will cry for your mothers, the terrified.
Infants you will not be forgotten,
you are freight that will come in a dream,
something to long for, someone to name.
Anna-May Laugher, born 1959 A prize winning poet, published online and in several magazines. She has just completed a two year project writing poems about Paula Rego’s mural in the National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing restaurant, entitled Crivelli’s Garden or The Visitation.