Foetus in a Bottle

My first day in Grammar School, I saw the jar,

Among the long display cabinet,

With fossils, bones and a pickled snake,

The Victorian interests of the past,

All by itself,

Left all alone,

-A foetus in a bottle.

Why was it there?

Why did it die?

How long did its mother cry?

-For the foetus in a bottle.

Every day I saw its face,

Just frozen in time, never to age.

Never saw life, never felt love,

-The foetus in a bottle.

If it had lived, would we have met?

Would it be great and change how we think?

Be a good wife, or simply have strife,

-The foetus in a bottle.

If you had lived and laughed and felt joy,

Had children to love, 

And saw the world as it is.

I think of you still and wonder the waste,

-Of the foetus in the bottle.

(2000)