WEEK 16 (Beside your mother asleep on the sofa)

To amnio or not to amnio

To sink a needle into your mother’s belly

To suck fluid from the only world you know

(Already we take)

& to crystal ball it for future defects

That’s the question

The risk is a miscarriage—The reward

The assurance you are not broken

Because there is a zero point six per cent chance you might be

Odds even the meekest of gamblers would grab

Odds we can’t afford because we are afraid

That’s all

We are ready to risk a miscarriage because

We are afraid you’ll fall in that zero point six per cent

Fear blinding us from the fact that

There is a ninety-nine point four per cent chance

You are perfectly unbroken

(Already we gamble)