A History of This Poem

    When I went to school at Alabama State University, the third floor of the science building, also known as Councill Trenhom Hall, had several displays of dead things in jars, pinned insects, diagrams and classifications.  There were two jars with human fetuses in them.   The fetuses were well developed, and they reminded me of abortion.  Those two fetuses were probably not subject to abortion (or they would have been cut up, etc...), but they represented to me the many who die of abortion everyday.

To the Fetuses

Their bodies float in a liquid world, unalive and sterile.

Their arms and legs are folded in, a shield to unseen peril.

The beating heart and sucked on thumb are motionless and still.

Their mouths are sealed with secrets no one wanted them to tell.

These two are tombstones of the countless ones who died

Through bloodshed, their innocence to life denied.

K. Leigh   9/30/96

The background is from "Choice of Backgrounds."

The music is "Lost in Your Eyes" from Mickey's Midi Collection.