Week thirty-nine of my second 
pregnancy, the doctor said, 

Your baby’s a footling breach. 
A rare position. One foot outstretched, 
the other tucked under—like a Flamingo on one leg. 
Natural birth isn’t possible. Brain damage 
or even death if baby’s head gets stuck. 

During the emergency C-section, 
I felt like a Xmas goose, stuffed 
with catheter and I.V, 
my contractions camouflaged 
by an epidural, my view 
blocked by a black curtain. 

From the other side of the screen 
as Doctor Cynthia said, Going in... 
church bells chimed midnight. 
At the uterus. 
Meconium in the water. 

Fetal distress! 
Not knowing what to do 
I held my breath, 
and reached for my spouse’s hand. 

What stands on one leg 
with its heart in its head? 
asked Doctor Maria, the anesthetist. 

What? my husband said. 
A cabbage, she said. 

Stop laughing, you’re jiggling your belly, 
Dr Cynthia instructed me, 
and a few minutes later she said, 
It’s a boy. 
Vitals good. 

I noticed I wasn’t the only one crying 
when I gently kissed my beautiful boy, 
wearing my face and tasting of delicious. 

Roseanne Freed

was born and grew up in apartheid South Africa, raised her children in Canada, and lived in the United States for more than 25 years. Last year, she and her husband moved from Los Angeles to the east coast of Canada. Roseanne’s writing has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in Blue Heron Review, Contrary Magazine, Literary Mama, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Naugatuck River Review, ONE ART, Silver Birch Press, The Jewish Writing Project, and Verse-Virtual, among others. Her chapbook, Your Name Is a Poem (Picture Show Press, 2024), tracks the final illness of her daughter, Mahalia, the mother of two young children. Roseanne is honored to be a member of the MacQueen’s Quinterly poetry community.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Seven poems by Roseanne Freed in ONE ART: a journal of poetry (in reverse chronological order, April 2026 through May 2022)

⚡ Ashkenazi Jewish families honor relatives, lyric essay by Freed in Issue 26 of MacQueen’s Quinterly (January 2025); nominated by MacQ for Best of the Net 2025, the Sundress Publications annual athology

⚡ Where’s Jeffrey?, CNF by Freed in Issue 22 of MacQueen’s Quinterly (February 2024); nominated by MacQ for Best of the Net 2025, the Sundress Publications annual athology

⚡ If Grief Is Inside Us, Who Can Measure the Grief of Another? in Issue 19 of MacQ (August 2023)

⚡ Your name is a poem in MacQ-15 (September 2022)