i moved into my grandma’s house

she only lived a block away

it was the summer of my senior year

and i needed a place to stay

she made up her spare room for me

a dresser and an old twin bed

it was humble but it would suffice

as a place to lay my head

that first night i turned in early

kicked my shoes off with a sigh

but i couldn’t get any sleep at all

because i could hear a baby cry

the next morning i asked my grandma

if there was a baby in the neighborhood

her face went slack so suddenly

as she said it was time i understood

she said i was supposed to be a twin

but my brother never made it out

when my mother realized what happened

all she could do was cry and shout

opting out of going to the hospital

my mother wanted control of her womb

so she decided to have the babies at home

right in my grandma’s spare room