Butterbox Babies - Revision
The Butterbox Babies
Chester, Nova Scotia, 1933:
It's a lovely little town.
White houses, with white picket fences
newly budded flowers in windowboxes
five white churches, each with a steeple
reaching up to tickle God's belly.
Just out of town
beyond the apple orchards
is the Eden Maternity Home for young women of good families
arriving swollen, from New York, Philadelphia, Boston
returning slender, desperately anonymous.
The Eden Home sells babies
for a good price, if a Mayflower Name can be murmured,
or Carnegie, or Rockefeller, or Pratt.
But to maintain a good crop, one must cull.
And so those babies who are defective:
spastic of limb, slow of mind, of unfortunate colour
are set aside in a soundproofed room
to cry, alone
until they die, alone
to be buried in butter boxes
under the apple trees
in Chester, Nova Scotia.
RDH
Sorry for the repetition, but there's always another tweak...I posted this one a little too soon. |
