Such a silly woman. I had to change my dress before he drove baby-&-me to the hospital. As if maternity nurses never saw hemorrhaging or a bloody skirt. “I’ll be right back, Dear,” I promised, as I stepped off the curb and hurried to the house. Never said how dizzy I felt.
Such a silly man. Herbert did a little eye-roll, but didn’t argue with a woman going into labor. Then, I collapsed onto the street behind our old car. Herbert saw that gray Buick sedan passing by — with the license number he got almost right — and thought “hit-‘n’-run.” Over and over, he yelled “Call 911! Call 911!” to everyone, and no one, his tears wetting my face.
Silly police. Hours of roadblocks and interviews. On the tv news, neighbors outraged over a “black driver” who would knock down a full-term, pregnant woman and keep on going. A “very nice woman” I was.
Silly Medical Examiner. It took him a day to figure it out. “ ‘The cause of death was not consistent with injuries being struck by a motor vehicle,” said Amsterdam Chief Thomas Brownall. She fell backwards at just the same time the vehicle was going by. Fell backwards, struck her head and died of those injuries.” [WNYT.com]
They did a C-section, but my baby was dead. They examined the gray car and it never hit any body. When I got to the hospital, my clothes had more rusty splotches. I can hear my mother wailing in Uganda. Such a silly woman.
midnight fire alarm —
stumbling toward
the wedding album.. by dagosan
from the news:
– “Amsterdam Woman’s Death Not Caused by Hit and Run,” WNYT.com, Albany, NY (May 27, 2006) “So it appears when all is said and done, this was just a tragic circumstance where the initial report of the vehicle striking the person was inaccurate” said Chief Brownall. Police say it helps to know that what was believed to be a heinous crime is just rather an unfortunate event, but they add it doesn’t make the situation any less tragic.
– “Autopsy: Aneurysm killed mom“, Albany Times Union, May 28, 2006
afterwords: “Silly Woman” has been published in Contemporary Haibun Online Vol. 3 #3 (September 2007), and was selected to appear in the associated annual print journal “Contemporary Haibun, Vol. 9” (Edited by Jim Kacian, Bruce Ross, and Ken Jones, 2008), from Red Moon Press.
guest haijin:
under the
blackest doodle
something unerasable
stairway
descending into
her perfume… by John Stevenson
“under the” – Something Erasable (1995)
“stairway” – Some of the Silence (1999)