Advice from an Old Woman I Met on the Road

The retired midwife stamped
Her cane to end each sentence.

Never! We never named a baby
Before we heard its lusty cries!

Now – there is no mystery,
no sense any more of proper order!

Nobody seems to worry, or recall
That an unmet desire – a gasp – for air

Is the first stop before limbo
And the last one before hell.

Written by Marcy Erb of Illustrated Poetry