Everybody Speaks (12 Haiku to Last Me A Lifetime)

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Dada said God called

on the Friday night before

I was born four lbs —

 

a bloody, angry

and premature thing not strong

enough to survive

 

on my own, and the

doctor said that I am months

too small to breastfeed.

 

My birthmother is

now spared the grief of losing

a child that she had

 

been planned to give up

cuz spare change real hard to count

when ur just a kid

 

who already got

two hungry lil babies and

no education.

 

The social worker

hatin’, said “White folk always

tryna be saviors.”

 

and she predicted

that “real” Black kids would never

accept me. I am

 

only a newborn

hooked up to tangled tubes and

machines, but mom said

 

she could see heaven

in me. Said, "She looks more like

an 'Angelica'

 

than a 'Madeline'."

cuz "Madeline” forsure sounds

like a white girl name.

 

And dada agreed

and my birthmother don’t grieve.

Nicu nurses speak