Poet describes loss to Ebsteins
08/05/09
Poet Rebecca Goss talks on the BBC’s Womans Hour about the death of her daughter Ella at the age of 16 months from Ebstein’s Anomaly. You can read more about Rebecca’s appearance on Womans hour on the BBC website, where you can also listen again to the broadcast itself.
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Rebecca’s baby Ella was diagnosed with Severe Ebstein’s Anomaly at just 36 hours old in 2007. Ella was not expected to make it through the night but after two weeks in hospital, she went on to live a remarkably normal life at home. It wasn’t until her first birthday that Ella’s health began to deteriorate and she died aged 16 months. Rebecca’s poem, ‘Echo’, is reproduced with her kind permission below. Rebecca’s poetry has been published in many literary journals and her first full length collection will be published by Flambard Press in 2010. Her poems about Ella form a separate collection which she is in the process of completing.
Echo
Not the one that starts in your mouth, bounces back,
rolls down your throat, vowels collecting like balls in a net.
I mean an echocardiogram. The doctor’s probe plays
slim keys of your ribs, draws the murmur of music
that beats in you. Your baby heart dances on the screen,
if only it was lucky to see this secret cave. A deformed
valve leaps between chambers like a March hare,
marking the spring day you were born. Diverted on its travels,
your blood is a mystery trail, leaving me lost.
I distract you with bubbles. Keep clear spheres
coming around your head, wanting them to last,
each pop a small, inexplicable loss.
Copyright © Rebecca Goss, 2009
Comment by Tim — September 7, 2009 @ 12:46 pm