{"id":7081,"date":"2006-05-30T08:56:17","date_gmt":"2006-05-30T12:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2006\/05\/30\/silly-woman\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:56","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:56","slug":"silly-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2006\/05\/30\/silly-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"silly woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a silly woman<\/em>. I had<\/em> to change my dress before he drove baby-&-me to the hospital. As if maternity nurses never saw hemorrhaging or a bloody skirt. “I’ll be right back, Dear,” I promised, as I stepped off the curb and hurried to the house. Never said how dizzy I felt. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Such a silly man<\/em>. Herbert did a little eye-roll, but didn’t argue with a woman going into labor. Then, I collapsed onto the street behind our old car. Herbert saw that gray Buick sedan passing by — with the license number he got almost right — and thought “hit-‘n’-run.” Over and over, he yelled “Call 911! Call 911!” to everyone, and no one, his tears wetting my face. <\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Silly police<\/em>. Hours of roadblocks and interviews. On the tv news, neighbors outraged over a “black driver” who would knock down a full-term, pregnant woman and keep on going.<\/span><\/span><\/span> A “very nice woman” I was. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Silly Medical Examiner<\/em>. It took him a day to figure it out. <\/span>\u201c ‘The cause of death was not consistent with injuries being struck by <\/span><\/span>a motor <\/span><\/span>vehicle,” said Amsterdam Chief Thomas Brownall. <\/span><\/span>She fell backwards at just the same time the <\/span><\/span>vehicle was <\/span><\/span>going by. Fell backwards, struck her head and died of <\/span><\/span>those injuries.\u201d [WNYT.com<\/em><\/a>] <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

They did a C-section, but <\/span>my baby was dead. They examined the gray car and it never hit any body. <\/span><\/span>When I got to the hospital, my clothes had more rusty splotches. I can hear my mother wailing in Uganda. Such a silly woman. <\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

midnight fire alarm —
\nstumbling toward
\nthe wedding album<\/p>\n

.. by dagosan<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

from the news<\/strong><\/em>: <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

– “Amsterdam Woman’s Death Not Caused by Hit and Run<\/span><\/a>,” WNYT.com<\/em><\/a>, Albany, NY <\/span><\/span>(May 27, 2006) \u201cSo it appears when all is said and done, this was just a tragic circumstance <\/span><\/span>where the initial report of the vehicle striking the person was inaccurate\u201d said Chief Brownall. <\/span><\/span>Police say it helps to know that what was believed to be a heinous crime is just rather an <\/span><\/span><\/span>unfortunate event, but they add it doesn’t make the situation any less tragic.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

– “Autopsy: Aneurysm killed mom<\/span><\/a>“, Albany Times Union<\/em>, May 28, 2006<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\n

afterwords<\/strong><\/em>: “Silly Woman<\/em>” has been published in Contemporary Haibun Online<\/em><\/a> Vol. 3 #3 (September 2007), and was selected to appear in the associated annual print journal “Contemporary Haibun,<\/em> Vol. 9<\/a>” (Edited by Jim Kacian, Bruce Ross, and Ken Jones, 2008), from Red Moon Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

guest h<\/em><\/strong><\/span>aijin<\/em><\/strong>: <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\n

\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

under the
\nblackest doodle
\nsomething unerasable
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nstairway
\ndescending into
\nher perfume<\/p>\n

… by <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>John Stevenson<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n“under the” – Something Erasable<\/em> (1995)
\n“stairway” – Some of the Silence<\/em> (1999)
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Such a silly woman. I had to change my dress before he drove baby-&-me to the hospital. As if maternity nurses never saw hemorrhaging or a bloody skirt. “I’ll be right back, Dear,” I promised, as I stepped off the curb and hurried to the house. Never said how dizzy I felt. Such a silly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3298],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiga-or-haibun"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-1Qd","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12648,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7081\/revisions\/12648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}