a child does
not arrive

into an empty
world

lives were lived
with loves and

losses

endings have
been written

but not acted out

pretty flowers
have decayed

but not discarded

we carry the
weight of generations

of mistakes
in our souls

every child is
an output of

a common process

but not every child
is planned or wanted

given that we still
have to live

a life and find
a way to make

it work for us
and the next