"Dancing, before you were born" by J. Hope Stein

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December 6, 2021 

Dancing, before you were born

J. Hope Stein

It was like the universal scene
for miscarriage
in the language of film
when I woke up in a pool of blood.

The doctor said the trouble
was with my placenta.
—“But right now, the baby’s dancing”

Right now, the baby’s dancing.

Copyright © 2021 by J. Hope Stein. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 6, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“When my doctor told me my placenta was bleeding and there was nothing I could do but wait and see if it got worse or healed on its own, my brain filled with onomatopoeic loopings about this ‘trouble with my placenta’ contrasted with the image of this baby dancing inside me. Both so intimate. Both completely out of my control.”
J. Hope Stein

J. Hope Stein is the author of little astronaut, forthcoming in 2022 from Andrews McMeel, and Occasionally, I remove your brain through your nose (Poet Republik, 2017). She collaborated on The New One (Grand Central, 2020), a book of prose and poetry, with Mike Birbiglia.
Occasionally, I remove your brain through your nose
(Poet Republik, 2017)


 

“Female Rain” by Laura Tohe
read more
“The Miscarriage” by Dorothea Lasky
read more

Thanks to Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic (Graywolf Press, 2019), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read a Q&A about Kaminsky’s curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year
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