A free-verse poem addressing whether some babies should be born. |
A Baby Was Born Today A baby was born today … which should be a cause of joy. She did not ask to be born. She is the by-product of the miracle called conception. It doesn’t matter now whether she resulted from a drunken tryst in the backseat of a Buick or whether she was carefully planned. She exists. She is here now. A baby was born today … which should begin a glorious life. But, her future is only partly hers to shape. She has no control over how her parents will treat her, over whether they will truly love and take good care of her, or whether they will abuse her, warp her mind, restrict her future. Sheer accident of birth has decided if she lives in happiness or is impoverished and in misery. A baby was born today ... into a lifetime of failure to be filled with crushed dreams and a broken heart. Fate has dictated this baby girl be born to a teenage, drug-addicted, ignorant, unwed, unfit mother. Through no fault of her own, this baby was born stunted in mind and body and wracked with pain. This baby’s future will be bleak -- a life of want, to be unloved and neglected as a child; to be triply undernourished: mentally, physically, plus spiritually; to become a drop-out, hooked on crack and alcohol to quiet the hurt, hunger, and despair filling her days. Pregnant at fifteen, twice arrested for prostitution, she will die of an overdose, feeling her life wasn’t worth the living. A baby was born today … but perhaps some babies truly would be better off had they never been born, despite what some people claim. Please check out my ten books: http://www.amazon.com/Jr.-Harry-E.-Gilleland/e/B004SVLY02/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 |