Ice Storm

It was 1948, and Ingrid
was playing Joan and my
parents were still sleeping
in the same bed (did they ever?)
and eventually, four years later it took
because like a freakin' miracle
she shot me out into a world
of bad weather. Nobody
much noticed at Queens
Memorial where they still wore
those hats & uniforms, and my mother
complained later of how she nearly
died having a baby, and how, much later
the nurse who never finished nursing
complained that these nurses
will wear anything these days!
Yup. 3:15 a.m. in a March ice storm.
And there I am, looking up
at the one and only world I knew:
my Ma.