IMPROPER DISPOSAL

The words suggest illegal
dumping of a bloodstained
mattress or mound of toxic soil
Not a baby, wrapped
in a woman's sweater, left
on the steps of a church
in weather cold enough to freeze
a bottle of wine. Why
would anyone leave
a baby like this? The police
want to speak to the mother
because the father . . . he could be
anyone and no one, a boy
who can't remember where
he left his sperm, or a cloud
of voices in the form of a dove

Intrauterine asphyxia
states the Cook County medical
examiner's office for cause
of death. The baby stillborn
making the mother not a murderer
but a parent who simply wanted
a Christian burial for her child.
Though she's still guilty
of improper disposal of a body.
In her own way, she was caring
for her child, notes the pastor
of the church. That's no sin.
Sin, in a land where one in five
children go to bed hungry,
is something more
common, less newsworthy.