Pebble on the Tongue: From the Basement of Suffering

Given the loss and suffering that marks these days, here is the sense of a moment recounted by Sadako Kurihara, poet of Hiroshima:

In Hiroshima, in a basement,
mid stench and death,
a young woman goes into labor.

A woman, herself moaning with pain,
steps forward.

“I can help with the baby.
I am a midwife.”