Jessica McClure - 1/29/06

So you were married, baby
scraped and dazed
after spending 58 hours in -
what was it?
Your second womb
throbbing, the chill
of steel and drill -
Midland they called it.

58 hours. 18 months. 8 inches wide.
Do the numbers add up?
You 19. Him 32.
Did you ever escape
the suffocating darkness,
the voices calling
through shafts of steel,
angels teasing for days
now marrying
in the town that trapped you,
that saved you?

Or do you still struggle
with arms compressed
by the cold dank logic
of a life ripped from the earth
to the flash and burst
of cameras going off...
Snap. Crackle. Pop.