Infants Remembered In Silence (IRIS) - Poems

Phantom Flutters

By Rosalind Roland

Where should we spill the milk
From breasts too full?
When shall we weep no more
For arms left empty?
How do we fill a womb
Too soon hollow?

Who are we,
If there is no pain?
Who are the lost,
If we mourn them not?

With nothing before and nothing after,
Should we dream,
Since dreams are all we have?

Written after Conan Carollan Hayes (10/19/96 – 10/25/96) died of renal failure following extreme prematurity (26 weeks, 14 oz., 9-3/4 in.) due to pre-eclampsia. Survived by his twin, William (1 lb. 14 oz., 12-3/4 in.), older siblings, Emmet, Andrew, James, Kathleen, Chloe, and mother and father, Stephen and Rosalind.

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