the sadness of the experiment
womb-like bag with a little lamb
the extra-uterine device holding the sad expression
of the lamb at rest who will never be born
the folded ears of the lamb at rest who will never be born
the folded legs of the lamb at rest who will never be born
mimicked placenta, functioning, crucial
gestate in the amniotic fluid, lab-created
fetal lungs on their way in the prototype
life in the uterus is life
our sad lamb will always be sad
in her plastic bag
with her low-resistance oxygenator for company
*written in response to a Reuters Science News Story from April 2017 by Kate Kelland and can be read about in this New Scientist article.
Jude Cowan Montague worked for Reuters Television Archive for ten years. Her album The Leidenfrost Effect (Folkwit Records 2015) reimagines quirky stories from the Reuters Life! feed. She produces ‘The News Agents’ on Resonance 104.4 FM. Her most recent book is The Originals (Hesterglock Press, 2017).
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