nobody's baby

Nobody's Baby

Towheaded white trash

Conceived at the fair

Nobody’s baby

Born of a tipsy affair



A bright eyed junior

A seaman on leave,

Spring fever unleashed

Both young and naïve



Bootlegged liquor

A Ferris wheel kiss

A grope in the fun house

An hour of bliss



She went back to school

He returned to the sea

Forty one weeks later

One and one equaled three



Coerced into marriage

The way of the south

A shoddy beginning

They lived hand to mouth



Four more babies

Eleven hard years

Add another twenty

How time disappears



Two angry people

Five children later

All nobody’s babies

The distance grew greater



Splintered, worn and broken

It couldn’t be mended

A lifetime in limbo

Was finally ended



Each child duly married

Only one is still wed

There are nine well loved babies

To pick up the thread



What started at a carnival,

Ended quite sadly

Please raise your babies, gently

Wisely, tenderly, gladly