Lullaby for the Children on Display at OMSI

This poem is dedicated to the children (or "fetuses") who are preserved at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry to show the incredible progression of prenatal development. They all died of natural causes. I dearly hope their parents loved them.

~~~

Oh tiny body soaked in plastic,

Sleep

Your eyes that never opened,

Rest

Your fingers— fragile, tendril-like,

with half-formed nails

and handprints waiting,

Close

Now limp inside the rigid shell.

Oh child in plastic,

Rest

But don’t reside in this, your corpse, 

your leaden earthly mask

that callous and respectful eyes peruse

like books upon a shelf. Oh child!

Oh precious child in plastic,

Sleep

And wake once more to newborn light.

~~~