Unused
When all's been said that will be said,
When we've done all we've meant to do,
When at last I'm finally dead,
What will you really do?
I was almost never born
— I was almost never born,
And perhaps I was not meant to be.
My father's dreams had been by me shorn;
He'd be more were it not for me.
My mother on her own conceived;
She chose to counter contraception.
Willful, she had my father deceived —
I was made by that deception.
He, a graduate of history,
Had desired my mother to abort;
But she had so wanted a baby...
We pared his education short.
On the thirteenth then, I was due;
But though the month's thirteenth came and went,
Into this world I would not come through
And that womb another week lent.
Labor pains she has never felt:
Instead of contractions, she had blood.
She was cut, while I, a harsh blow dealt;
My pained cries did that birth room flood.
Perhaps I'd tried not to be born
To reverse my mother's wanting sin.
It's true: I was almost never born...
Perhaps I never should have been.
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