On accidentally getting pregnant at age 45 in America in 2024
One mother gave her child to the sea // another gave it to her 24-year-old daughter // one swallowed witch hazel and red raspberry leaf tea but grew bigger // one doctor said, “we can take care of that” // another said, “but first look at this ultrasound” // one mother thought I can’t swallow these pills because my grandparents survived a genocide // another swallowed them because of genocides // one Googled “abortion poems” but each one started with “I’m sorry” // one mother said, “when she starts kindergarten, I’ll be 50” // the last stood in the Gulf, praying each wave would slam her to salt
Jen Siraganian is an Armenian-American writer, educator, and former Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, California. Author of the chapbook Fracture, she has been profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose’s The Mercury News. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, Barrow Street, Best New Poets, Cortland Review, NPR’s KALW, Prairie Schooner, Smartish Pace, and other journals. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize, she was co-winner of the New Ohio Review Poetry Prize and is a Lucas Artist Fellow. A former managing director of Litquake: San Francisco’s Literary Festival, she has taught in schools and community settings for twenty years. jensiraganian.com
