My mother showed up at the wrong hospital one day
There were seven babies born to one woman
While she waited from her miscarriage,
They pushed the seven babies into the lobby
Her husband fainted when he saw them
And her mother fell on top of her,
If she had just waited in her room
It would never have happened
But there she was sitting in the lobby.
With seven babies,
She did not know what the problem was
While another woman was being wheeled in a bed past her.
Why was her family acting strange?
Meanwhile, the other young girl was crying
And screaming, I just wanted one baby,
Her husband said to her
We got seven of them!
But I only wanted one!
One baby at a time.
Not seven, all at once.
Her family was reeling from the unexpected.
Meanwhile, my mother could not understand
Her baby had been born dead
And she had nothing to take home.
Seven babies being pushed into the lobby
For the happy family to arrive
And take home one woman and her surprise birth.
Now adays, most know ahead of time
What is going to come out
And not wait until it is too late.
To have so many births at once
But that is another story
About five years later,
They meet again in the same hospital
One family was trying to strum up funds
For their large seven baby family.
They had their pictures taken for the media
My mother also was asked to show up for her picture
She had her two grandmothers sitting on either side of her.
And her mother standing behind her
While in front of her she had two girls
My sister and I are mirror images.
Identical in almost everyway
Except we were not born on the same day
Different birth days but the same DNA.
Who knows what will happen?
Children come when they want
It is up to the doctors to explain.
When and where and why.
But it is the parents
Who are held accountable?
For their actions nine months earlier
The early days of the multiple births
Two women made a local hospital happy.
One with her seven at once
And one with twins
Born separately,
No one knows how it happened
Or how rare it is to happen
But there are women who have more than one.
Pregnancy at the same time.
Modern doctors know how to make it happen
But most women are not happy.
As one woman kept on crying
My mother had to have one more woman added to her photo
Her mother-in-law to make seven in her photo.
It would be years before the other woman
Finally gave up the fight,
That she was not the one with the seven babies.
Not really.
They simply grew up and left home.
While my mother went on to have one more baby.
But never got over the first one
Who was not born to her?
She even adopted another one.
Who was not even hers.
Just to make it better
That she had not had a dead baby.
But Jimmy was already born
To another woman
A few years earlier.
My mother did not care
As long as she did not have to be humiliated
About sitting there in the lobby with no baby at all.
Jimmy is not hers
But the one she uses
She will not give up the idea.
That she is perfect in all things
And just once did not come through
Meanwhile, Jimmy has forgotten.
That he is not ours
But belongs to another family
Living his whole life in denial.
About coming out of the wrong woman
In the wrong year
And with nowhere to go.
His mother died decades ago
His father just recently
He still refuses to acknowledge them.
While I still complain
About my last name not being his
Nor my family, friends nor other familiarities.
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