Three o’clock in the morning; the boy and brother hear voices
The boys -- in a ‘middle’ room.
The father carrying the mother down the hall.
He would not talk. But neighbors/ and others were there; they were
‘milling about’ - clucking fowl in a barnyard. in a hallway.
chuffing tigers
chuffing tigers
whispering, and shhhh. ‘Just hush, the two boys are right there.’
The mother was hemorrhaging, barely conscious. limp rag;
the bleeding sick mother. 'The Angel' / the birth giver
carried in strong arms, unable to talk.
she would survive. Thank God she did. It was never discussed,
the laceration, some rip not properly mended in surgery:
breaking loose and the mother would have died.
Who was watching the boys?
(wide eyed, in the hallway)
Those boys were scared as fuck.
