Eight months of tender life
Growing within--
Breathing within--
Life within enthused life.

Then, a sudden ordeal
The pain excruciate-
The trauma violent-
A shreak, a birth, then silence.

No shrill wail,
No desperate move-
No life upon birth-
No breath.

Birth and death the same instance
The cradle covered in shroud-
Betrayal of anticipation and birth,
The birth of the dead.