Content Warning: blood, fertility, pregnancy, loss

Helen Openshaw – When the absence of blood is hope

It was the year I swallowed

Summer whole.

The metal tang fizz of it

Lingered on my tongue.

Just the edge of a promise,

Not quite fear holding my

Breath tight.

Sick waves knitted you in,

Stitch by stitch, you

a purl in the middle.

Blood singing, a chorus

Burgeoning life.

The weeks are counted like stitches,

but

I can’t forgive myself that I dropped a stitch,

That all I saw of you was blood.

Helen Openshaw is a Drama and English teacher from Cumbria. She enjoys writing poetry and plays and inspiring her students to write. Words in Green Ink Poetry magazine, Words and Whispers magazine, The Madrigal, Fragmented Voices, Forge Zine, Roi Faineant Press and The Dirigible Balloon magazine. She has just had her first chapbook published by Alien Buddha Press. Twitter @pocket_rhyme

Artwork: Hematologic Orbit by L.M. Cole

L.M. Cole is a poet and artist residing in North Carolina. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming with Roi Fainéant, Corporeal, Daily Drunk, The Bitchin' Kitsch and others. She can be found on Twitter @_scoops__