Empathy Belly

A little silliness for Friday. This catalog was a kick, though I have since lost it. I should have ordered the Nervous System shirt while I had the chance.

This is an older poem I placed in The Panhandler, and here's the poem's epigraph: the best source of innovative & educational products on medicine, health & childbirth.


ANATOMICAL PRODUCTS CATALOG

Waiting for the belly. This too
is practice. Instantly discover

what it feels like to be pregnant,
the catalog says. My Empathy Belly

is late, though. Fetal kicking, shortness
of breath, bladder pressure — the whole

nine yards sewn into one weighted vest.
I am close to worry, though. I think

the man in the ad for the belly, smiling warmly,
happily holding his belly, could just as easily be

well-fed as pregnant and I remember
my grandpa rising from the table

and holding his domed gut in the same satisfied way.
That these two conditions appear so similar to me

is disturbing. I fear this could confuse my pregnancy
experience, despite the product’s excellence.