I love this poem written by one of the ladies I met through an IVF clinic I attended. More of her work can be found at http://www.clairetaylor.org/2015/10/15/so-many-unspoken-losses/

 

A Question 

I know you have no say

But I’m asking anyway:

Will you stay?

If you can’t, then I won’t blame you;

Nobody’s to blame.

But if you can, then, well,

All those crazy ups and downs and the money and the drugs,

Those looks of blank incomprehension, the consultant’s baffled shrugs;

The years that have gone by in a secret half-life blur,

All those cancelled dates to which no one will refer,

And your brothers and your sisters who never really were;

And the needles and the steroids and the intravenous drips,

Those mysterious last-minute “it’s family business” trips,

Those well-meaning, unrequested, uninformed and so unhelpful tips,

And the cold, iron hand of fear and dread that round the solar plexus grips,

Will – not vanish  – but maybe fade,

Like a nightmare in the day.

And I know you have no say

But I’m asking anyway:

Will you stay?

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