when you felt the twinges,
when you saw the two pink lines,
when you told your friend who couldn’t have a child,
when you told your mother who was dying,
when you saw the blood,
when you called your boyfriend,
when you saw the blood would not stop,
when you told your mother who was dying,
when the woman in the waiting area asked why you were there,
when the sonographer smoothed the gel on your skin,
when the probe moved across your stomach,
when the probe moved across your stomach,
when the probe moved across your stomach.

Sam Szanto (she/her) is an award-winning, Pushcart prize-nominated writer living in Durham (UK). Her poetry pamphlet ‘This Was Your Mother’ was published by Dreich Press in 2024; ‘Splashing Pink’ was published by Hedgehog Press in 2023 and was a Poetry Book Society Winter Pamphlet Choice; her debut short-story collection ‘If No One Speaks’ was published by Alien Buddha Press.