LETTER TO A CHILDLESS WOMAN

You wonder, as you contemplate the world’s end,
If you had done well, done right, by your unborn children.
Your womb is no safe place for a child. You know this.
Your womb cannot make life for this life.
This you knew all along.
You told yourself you can’t bear children
That the flesh would not stick for long
With each blood cycle, you told yourself
Is it because you knew, all along
That you don’t want this life                 that you never did
That somehow you are here, because someone decided
That the time for you has come
By mere coincidence, you are here
And you could’ve never been born
Is it responsibility that you don’t want to assume
Is it the inevitable guilt that you refuse to carry
Like those that came before you, and didn’t know how
You wonder, as you contemplate the world’s end,
what life there is to give
To all those who are already here