Note: Georgia's law H.B. 481, also known as the LIFE Act, passed in 2019. The baby Chance was extracted from Adriana’s body by Cesarean on June 13. A funeral will be held at noon for Adriana on June 28 at the Fairfield Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia.

My first draft of “Advanced Directive” came out of a week-long poetry workshop with Community of Writers this past Summer, in a mountain valley where I live. Reading about the horrible ordeal of Adriana Smith and her family, I felt their helplessness, and I imagined the loneliness of the fetus. I started with the intention to honor Adriana, who appeared nearly invisible in the news articles. Writing the poem became a practice in letting go, as a sudden memory from my childhood leaped into the poem and blended with an experience I had years later swimming in a forest of kelp along the shoreline near Monterrey Bay. For me, the poem is trying out new methods in my struggle to give voice to experiences in the overlap of political with personal, autonomy with womanhood, in the US.

Karen Terrey (MFA, Goddard College) currently serves as Poet Laureate for Nevada County, CA. She supports literary community through her business Tangled Roots Writing, offering workshops and hosting a monthly open mic and reading series for all ages. She also teaches English at Sierra College in Truckee, CA. Her chapbook Bite and Blood (2015) is available from Finishing Line Press. She finds refuge in the snowstorms of the Sierra and Nordic skiing with her Cattledog.