The Midwife Dream

PoetryIssue 25
Written By Alicia Ostriker

→ PUBLISHED IN ISSUE NO. 25: SPRING/SUMMER 2020

One of my students invited me to be her midwife
it seemed an easy birth, the girl healthy and strong
I reached in, drew out the head


pulled gently
but the scalp was smooth and cleft
strange I thought but it will be ok


only as I pulled and it emerged
it actually was a penis
brown and veined


pushing through the girl’s stretched labia
strange the dream arrived
so late so far along


in my life

Alicia Ostriker

Poet and critic Alicia Ostriker, current New York State Poet Laureate and a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, is the author of sixteen volumes of poetry, most recently Waiting for the Light and The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Jewish Book Award, Paterson Poetry Prize, San Francisco State Poetry Center Award, Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, William Carlos Williams Award, and fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations.

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“Because of Necessity” & “Female Chronology”