Abortions will not let you forget.
You remember the children you got that you did not get,
The damp small pulps with a little or with no hair,
The singers and workers that never handled the air.
You will never neglect or beat
Them, or silence or buy with a sweet.
You will never wind up the sucking-thumb
Or scuttle off ghosts that come.
You will never leave them, controlling your luscious sigh,
Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye.
I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed
children.
I have contracted. I have eased
My dim dears at the breasts they could never suck.
I have said, Sweets, if I sinned, if I seized
Your luck
And your lives from your unfinished reach,
If I stole your births and your names,
Your straight baby tears and your games,
Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches,
and your deaths,
If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths,
Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate.
Though why should I whine,
Whine that the crime was other than mine?—
Since anyhow you are dead.
Or rather, or instead,
You were never made.
But that too, I am afraid,
Is faulty: oh, what shall I say, how is the truth to be said?
You were born, you had body, you died.
It is just that you never giggled or planned or cried.
Believe me, I loved you all.
Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you
All.
Leave a guest comment (subject to review)
Comments
1 - 7 of 7
-
Gwendolym Brooks was an amazing writer who had a profound influence on my life. This poem, in particular has taken me through some bad times and rises again and again for use in helping others. Besides the fact that she is my favorite poet and has been for the last 35 years, she is also a huge influence in my own writing style. This poem means so much to me and I so agree about choices. God bless us and GB - no matter what she was meaning or thinking of meaning, she provided healing and beauty for us.
-
Sometimes there are no choices when there are choices that have to be made.
kleenex and a sigh.
this is gorgeous. -
Hey just read the poem, thought it was a lovely emotive piece. Although I cannot associate with the images related here, it is great to see you getting your emotions down and sharing them with us. Check out the work of Christina Rosetti (if you haven't already!). I think you'll like her stuff. Congrats on a great piece.
-
Found myself choking back the tears when reading your poem.Evokes many images...Thanx
-
So terribly terribly touching, Thanks so much for sharing.
-
beautiful... i'm adopted i appreciate the write... an interesting short book to read on the subject "Tilly" by frank e. peretti... it's an excellent book i read it aloud to my mother when i was 10, i still remember how it made me and her cry-ashes
-
is this enough to make me weep for those words that are scribed upon here
humbling indeed Ms. Brooks
and a beautiful point of view
Adding your comment:
1 - 7 of 7
