blue for boy

name given      umbilical cord ligated
ink drying on baby’s birth certificate
first cry pending       apgar score: one
baby not breathing normally     panic

news from neonatal intensive care unit:
skin colour blue          low muscle tone
heart rate abnormal       reflexes absent
no effort at respiration            it’s a boy

nurse contacts the only specialist on call
no answer in the paediatric department
baby still blue after nasal prong oxygen
poor outcome predicted               panic

where is the doctor on call     shift change
please give the wailing mother something
a sedative a meal an explanation anything
say   there’s nothing we can do for your boy

baby still blue    baby blue   baby still               as a doll
differential diagnosis                   drug resistant bacteria
mother given the news                it’s not just you ma’am
nine others too    you’ll have another one      don’t panic

This poem is a response to this news story.

Nkateko Masinga is an award-winning South African writer and scholar. She is a 2019 Fellow of the Ebedi International Writers Residency, a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow and a Golden Key Scholar. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018 and her work has received support from Pro Helvetia Johannesburg and the Swiss Arts Council. In 2019, she co-won the Brittle Paper Anniversary Award. Nkateko is the director of the Internship Program at Africa In Dialogue, as well as the founder and managing director of NSUKU Publishing Consultancy. She is an alumna of the University of Iowa’s 2021 International Writing Program (IWP). In 2022 she was selected by News24 as one of South Africa’s 30 Young Mandelas of the Future.