rum, whiskey, gin

The airline offered free drinks to mothers and I am one but I didn't want a crappy airline drink. I look young--ever so young, they tell me--and I would have had to make a point to tell the attendant that my drink ought to be free. The older women were handed them without comment, and I wondered how many were barren. How many bled out their babies like I did. How many lost them at 2 weeks or 20 years or any time in between. How many were sitting quietly in their row, sipping their rum or whiskey or gin and thinking, rightly, that they deserved it, for surviving this day one more time.