Like old war veterans
My sisters and I sit around the mother-to-be
In the kitchen

Claiming our children as souvenir shrapnel
Trading stories
Out doing the other in gory detail
Even though we've heard it all before:

the cross legged breech sitting Indian style butt first
would not be turned,
the vacuum shoved right where it hurt worst and getting stuck,
the block that stopped the contractions,
the epidermal that didn't take,
the tearing past the episiotomy couldn't sit for weeks,
the instant waking after a last second Cesarean
with that fucking nurse
pushing on the stitches and holding up polaroids of the baby,

Excruciating Pain.

And my niece
with the round playground ball

belly

Actually wants us to be there…

Till we start to argue about names.