Clean by Virginia Lake

The problem that afternoon
Was that when the woman
Seven months pregnant,
In the throes of fentanyl addiction,
Began giving birth on the sidewalk
In a homeless tent in downtown Portland,
City of Roses, the City That Works,
The homeless and toothless woman

Serving as midwife, called for something
Clean to spread under the mother-to-be
Only a tarp could be found,
The birth accomplished,
There was not one clean item of any
Description to wrap the baby in.

Virginia Lake is a senior auditor at Portland State University where she studies literature and takes writing classes. She published two poems in Old Pal Magazine when she was 77 years old. That was her first publication. In 2023 she published one poem in Boats Against the Current. In 2024 she published two poems in The Banyon.