War Baby Comes to America

By Faizah Uddin

 

My grandmother births

war baby

in hiding. In 1971. In what will become Bangladesh.

 

Born from bloodshed.

My grandmother’s firstborn son

Hides elsewhere. Grandfather sets his rifle

 

against the soldiers slicing pregnant women open

And slicing women open

And open.

 

Life comes through amongst death.

The midwife lays a wet red baby against my grandmother’s chest

born in blood.

 

The family names her Lovely.

Grandfather calls her war baby.

Born from blood, Bangladesh becomes Bangladesh.

 

My mother tells me her birth story

And she tells my birth story here in America.

Doctors sliced her open and pulled me out,

 

and laid me on her chest.