Analysis of Miscarriage

Joe Hammond 1961 (San Diego)



For me
The miscarriage
Was of justice

When you and
The lawyer stole
My inheritance

You leveraged
The ultimate
Fuck you

In a long
Series of them

While you prepared strategically
For another man
Another life
At the end of the love chain

But still without
A daughter

For you
The miscarriage was life
Viscerally conceived
And taken

I stole the last chance
From us
There at the close
Of the birth control wars

You went home
To mother
The week of
The unilateral vasectomy

From then on
We both shot blanks
In countless
Other wars

Though we were already dead
To one another
While time compounded
Your interest

You waited impatiently
For my mother
To die
Lest she suspect

Then I learned
The hard way
From a cadre of crones
Cashing in

It would cost me a third
Of a million dollars
And 25 years
To raise a child

Even the one
You couldn’t carry

But still do


Scheme AXB XXX XXC XX AXDX XE CDXF XBXG XEXA XXBG XEXX AEXX XXBX XXXX FA C
Poetic Form
Metre 11 0010 1110 110 0101 10100 1100 0100 11 001 1011 11010100 10101 0101 1011011 1101 010 11 001011 100001 010 11011 11 1101 101011 111 110 011 001000100 111 1111 010 101 1100101 11010 11010 110 1100100 1110 11 1101 111 011 101011 100 111101 101010 01 1101 1001 1110 111
Closest metre Iambic dimeter
Characters 891
Words 192
Sentences 1
Stanzas 16
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 2, 4, 2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 1
Lines Amount 52
Letters per line (avg) 13
Words per line (avg) 3
Letters per stanza (avg) 43
Words per stanza (avg) 10

About this poem

About a failed marriage and varied perspectives on what constitutes trauma.

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Written on March 16, 2024

Submitted by gojoehammond on March 16, 2024

57 sec read
1

Joe Hammond

A clinical psychologist who is also a poet and musician, among other things. more…

All Joe Hammond poems | Joe Hammond Books

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